MARY OLIVER X 2

She read to her dogs.

If you haven't met Mary Oliver before, let me introduce her.

She was born in Maple Hills Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1935. She died 83 years later in Florida. She loved nature and dogs, and wrote dozens of poems about both subjects.

If you want  more information about her life and growth as a poet, look at the Poetry Foundation's website for a detailed critique.

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Today I'm sharing two of her poems.

WHY I WAKE EARLY

 Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety--

 

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light—

good morning, good morning, good morning.

 

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

      [from the collection WHY I WAKE EARLY, 2004]

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THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER

As long as you're dancing, you can

     break the rules.

Sometimes breaking the rules is just

     extending the rules.

Sometimes there are no rules.

     [from the collection A THOUSAND MORNINGS, 2012]

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Blessings,

Thursday's Child