Mary Oliver

-That's the big question, the one the world thaws at you every morning. "Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?"

-Writing poems, for me but not necessarily for others, is a way of offering praise to the world.

-What does it mean, say the words, that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?

-In the shapeliness of life, habit plays it sovereign role...thus we can improve ourselves quite well by habit, by its judicious assistance, but it's more likely that habits rule us.

-The patterns of our life reveal us. Our habits measure us. Our battles with our habits speak of dreams yet to become real.

Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
 How grass can be nourishing in the
 mouths of lambs.
How river and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
 who think they have the answers.

 Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look"! and laugh in astonishment,
 and bow their heads. -Mary Oliver

First Days in San Miguel de Allende
 [ ]
I understand their necessity.
Understanding, however, is not sharing.
Oh, let there be a wedding of
the mind and the heart, if not today
then soon.

Meanwhile, le me change my own life
into something better.

[ ]

 -Mary Oliver

unbroken

how beautiful it is to be unbroken. -Mary Oliver

The Singular and Cheerful Life
 [ ]
 by its obedience
 to the holiest of laws: be alive
until you are not.

 [ ]
 What, in the earth world,
 is there not to be amazed by
and to be steadied by
and to cherish?

Oh, my dear heart,
my own dear heart,
full of hesitations,
questions, choice of directions,

look at the world. Behold the morning glory

[ ]

 -Mary Oliver

Another Summer Begins

Another Summer Begins
Summer begins again.
How many
do I still have?
Not a worthy question,

I imagine.
Hope is one thing,
gratitude another
and sufficient
unto itself

[ ]

and as for hope,
that tender advisement,
even that

I'm going to leave behind.
I'm just going to put on
my jacket, my boots,
I'm just going to go out...

[ ]

 -Mary Oliver

Gurdjieff

"There is a thousand times more value even in polishing a floor as it should be done than in writing twenty books." -G.I. Gurdjieff