The Ponds (Mary Oliver)
Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe
their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them –
the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch
only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?
I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided –
and that one wears an orange blight –
and this one is a glossy cheek
half nibbled away –
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled –
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing –
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.
HWM – thank you. the right words at the right time. older and wiser you will always be.
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One Comment
Oh how I LOVE Mary Oliver. And Louise Erdrich, too. Do you know Erdrich's poem about motherhood? About leaving the floors filthy? About writing writing writing and letting the chores all go? It is one of my favorites. I think it's called Advice to Myself.
I'm glad you and Sarah found each other and that now I've joined the loop.
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