In Blackwater Woods

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance 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.



~ Mary Oliver

5 comments

  1. Another unknown (to me) Oliver - beautiful, thank you.

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  2. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing that!

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  3. ahh, the strength to let things go
    tis one of the hardest lessons we must learn

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  4. It is, Kel.

    By the way, I had this long, l-o-n-g dream about you last night. I was visiting at your house (which, though I've never been to your house, I know was patently not where you live now - it was in the middle of suburbia). And Mr X was there, (even though I've never met Mr X). And that's all I can remember!! Sorry, 'bout that :)

    Don't you hate it when people say "I dreamed about you last night" - surely one of the more delicious conversations you can have - and then can't remember anything? :P

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  5. interesting

    i haven't been dreaming much myself lately

    maybe i've been too busy making guest appearances in other people's dreams to have my own :p

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