Honoring
01/17/2019
Oh. Mary. You always had the words for me.
Thank you.
In Blackwater Woods
--- Mary Oliver
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrances of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
RIP Mary Oliver. Thank-you for introducing her work to me Kym.
Posted by: Patty | 01/17/2019 at 02:47 PM
Oh no! RIP dear Mary Oliver.
Posted by: Kat | 01/17/2019 at 03:01 PM
A loss for sure.
Posted by: Vera | 01/17/2019 at 03:16 PM
What a loss for all of us.
Posted by: Carole | 01/17/2019 at 03:18 PM
I was sorry to read about this today. RIP Mary Oliver.
Posted by: Vicki | 01/17/2019 at 04:16 PM
I'm so sad, but grateful for all of the poetry she has left for us.
Posted by: Debbie | 01/17/2019 at 04:58 PM
A big loss; I will miss her and her words.
Posted by: Bonny | 01/17/2019 at 05:25 PM
You can get an audio of Mary Reading her Blackwater poems. I listened a couple of years ago and it transported me (as does all her poetry). She will live on!
Posted by: margene | 01/17/2019 at 05:53 PM
Oh no. I didn't know that Oliver has passed away. This world will miss her, how we will miss her. Luckily her poetry will live on in our hearts.
Posted by: Jane | 01/17/2019 at 09:31 PM
I'm sad thinking that there will be no more looking forward to something new from Mary ... but so very grateful for all the treasures she gave us. May she rest in peace.
Posted by: Mary | 01/18/2019 at 08:06 AM