Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This 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 down 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?"
THE SUMMER DAY, MARY OLIVER
3 comments:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?" Great poem especially those last two lines. They never fail to intrigue me.
Yeah, I see those lines all the time, but I'd never seen the rest of the poem. I love the way she switches gears, changes the subject so entirely.
Hi Susan!
Now this is a Mary Oliver I can love!!! So glad you posted it. I've not come across it in the intertent before.
Those last two lines are killer.
xxx
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