i'm totally copying this idea from lutheranchik, who posts a favorite or pertinent poem on fridays, though i'm going to try to do it saturdays if i remember. the first of these saturday poems is "the summer day" by mary oliver. in general, it's one of my favorite poems, and i'm doubly inspired to post it because it's been so beautiful out the past couple days here.
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
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 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?
--Mary Oliver
Ah, thanks for this Mary Oliver jewel. I posted one of hers on my blog about a week ago. She never fails to amaze and delight me.
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