Each day I stumble on an image that leaves me searching.
Some way to remember or triangulate the detail
of that bale of hay, that windrow drying,
Those six swans circling, the raft of ducks diving,
the lingering branch of dried red Thai peppers,
my scribbles or the gone but not departed
handwriting that endures.
I have to teach myself over and over
that I know how to take these ordinary sights
And reorganize them into more than the sum of their shadows.
Mindful By Mary Oliver
Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy, and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?
Some way to remember or triangulate the detail
of that bale of hay, that windrow drying,
Those six swans circling, the raft of ducks diving,
the lingering branch of dried red Thai peppers,
my scribbles or the gone but not departed
handwriting that endures.
I have to teach myself over and over
that I know how to take these ordinary sights
And reorganize them into more than the sum of their shadows.
Mindful By Mary OliverEvery day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy, and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?
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