Poetry Friday - for Mary Oliver

          Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect is hosting this week! Thank you, Tricia for the loving words from you for Mary Oliver!

        Today I heard the sad news of the passing of Mary Oliver. Through many years she taught me to look out at nature in new ways, her words a mentor for me while trying to pass her lessons on to students, too, as we traveled to wonderful places together and to teach myself new ways to see. I do have many favorite poems, but marked one passage a couple of years ago to remember, in prose, from her 2016 book, Upstream. It feels apt to share it with all of you this day.

    After observations by her pond of a fox feeding on an old frozen raccoon: 

     "And now my old dog is dead, and another I had after him, and my parents are dead, and that first world, that old house, is sold and lost, and the books I gathered there lost, or sold--but more books bought, and in another place, board by board and stone by stone, like a house, a true life built, and all because I was steadfast about one or two things: loving foxes, and poems, the blank piece of paper, and my own energy--and mostly the shimmering shoulders of the world that shrug carelessly over the fate of any individual that they may, the better, keep the Niles and the Amazons slowing.

      And that I did not give to anyone the responsibility for my life. It is mine. I made it. And can do what I want to with it. Live it. Give it back, someday, without bitterness, to the wild and weedy dunes." (p. 21,22)

       

      Thinking of Mary Oliver as I took an evening walk this Thursday, grateful for the gifts she gave to the world from her life .

Still Those Little Things!

  This weekend I celebrate with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and link with others who share their celebrations, too. I am grateful to Ruth for starting this meme that offers a place to celebrate together!

      I've felt rather stuck about this post in the past couple of days. I can celebrate that it was a good week, and the ordinary days are those I savor. After a wonderful trip, I was happy to be home, and to find enjoyable days. I wrote about the challenge of the word "ordinary" some time ago, wondering why we (I) think I have to find something really special for this post. I do struggle with it even though I relish those little things that make my life good. I thought all day yesterday, in the midst of working at the bookstore, on my way home, cleaning in the afternoon, could not find a way into writing--until late evening when I read a few more poems by Mary Oliver.  This time I discovered "Gratitude" in which Mary takes a line at a time and answers her own questions. It is not as eloquent, but does reflect my celebration. Thus:

What did you notice? 
        The cloudy sky, bringing rain our way. The rose by my fence, opening more each day.

What did you hear?
        The robin's cheer, a hawk's wild scream. The neighbor's one year old's laughter.

More Violets - Mary Oliver's, for Kay

           My husband's sister Kay died Friday night.  She has not been well for the past couple of years, but this past five days, a sudden attack took us all by surprise and two surgeries later (which she survived), she couldn't make it but just a day.  Her sons and their loved ones made it in to say goodbye, and I think she waited.  My family and I are so very sad.
           I have a wonderful brother, and two wonderful sisters-in law.  They've been my family for years and years and I count on them as if we had grown up together.  Kay was a wonderful woman.  I just had the nicest conversation with her last Saturday and in it she told me of the flowers she sent in our family's name for a distant cousin's funeral.  She was like that, kept up.  These past two years have been rough, but she kept doing things, traveling, going to the beloved sports games at the local college with her husband.  She was so tired, but refused to stop.  She was like that.

Mary Oliver Keeps Me Living

                Slices of Life happen often.  To find out about these slices, you only need to visit Ruth and Stacey at their blog Two Writing Teachers to read what others have shared.  

              So, I hope you do not think it blasphemy that I change a few words from A Summer Day by Mary Oliver and ask "Tell me, what is it you planned to do with your one wild and precious hour, last Sunday?"  

Did you

           See the day yawning before you, and 

Snuggle under the covers a bit longer, or arise earlier and watch the beautiful sunrise?

Take the time to call a friend you haven't talked with for a long while?

Read an extra book or two with your children?