Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Quiet walks

As I still lick my election wounds and get ready for Waffle Shop, I was moved the other day by a poem from the new Mary Oliver collection just out. The collection is from Beacon Press entitled Swan: Poems and Prose Poems.


The poem, posted below, takes me back to my Colorado quiet retreat. Quiet is a good thing, you know? ;-)




How I Go to the Woods


Ordinarily I go to the woods alone, with not a single

friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore

unsuitable.


I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds

or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my way of

praying, as you no doubt have yours.


Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit

on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds,

until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost

unhearable sound of the roses singing.


**


If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love

you very much.


Mary Oliver

from Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

Beacon Press 2010


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