It stopped raining yesterday and I went for a walk on my usual route. Look what one of my neighbors installed within the past two weeks-A poetry post! Unbelievable. Below is the poem I picked up.
The Summer Day
by: Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper? The grasshopper, I mean
the one who has flung herself out of the grass
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
2 comments:
I absolutely love the idea of a poetry post. We could install an original drawings post that featured our 5 year olds work...enough for the whole neighborhood. We would have to come up with a good name for it. love it.
I look forward to reading the welldoneblog.com every day; however, as this week was so busy, I just sat down and read the poetry postings all at once. Inspired! I find that although I love poetry, I seldomly read it; I'm now reminded I'm missing out. I suspect I'll be thinking about Vandergast for a while; eating poetry - "ink runs from the corners of my mouth" - can't wait to share that with my reader-daughter; the poetry post - it's almost as though your neighbor was expecting you - I hope you meet her/him someday.
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