Mary Oliver ~ Leaf and Cloud

 

Dear Mary Oliver,

I read you to him
as he drove us, miles and miles,
up-Island.
He listened, he smiled.
But he only spoke the language
of "I Am." He could not really hear.
He was an improbable hello,
and so soon a goodbye.
When I got home, I read some more,
pausing when you wrote, of your parents:
"May they sleep well. May they soften."
Life is a long list of letting go's,
of understanding, of forgiveness.

You wrote:
"A lifetime isn't long enough
for the beauties of this world."
All those years spent earning a living,
instead of joyously living a life.
"And I am thinking: maybe just
looking and listening is the real work."
That is the work I am doing now.

I am a poet, reading a Master, and you tell me:
"....the poem....wants to open itself
like the little door of a temple."
You say: "It may be the rock in the field
is also a song," and I know this,
for I have heard it, singing songs
of centuries ago.
You say: "Maybe the world, without us,
is the real poem."

I was a woman of sixty, when I read:
"I am a woman of sixty, of no special courage",
and my last misplaced love had been and gone.
I and my black wolf were in love with the wild
and it - and we - were enough.

I read your book to the living,
and I read your book to the dying woman
in her final sleep,
to whom I wanted to give a gift.
I felt the energy in the room change,
as the gift was received,
and walked outside into a rainbow.
And all of it -
the dying woman, your words,
the sky, my heart -
was enough and more than enough.

You said:
"Remember me......I am the one who told you
that the grass is also alive,
and listening."

I close the book in gratitude
for the words that help me
better love this world.

for Shay's wonderful Word List prompt featuring the work of Mary Oliver, whose work I adore. The italicized lines are taken from her amazing book-poem The Leaf and the Cloud, which I could not recommend more highly. 

When Mary Oliver died, the poets of Tofino gathered and read some of her poems, and I read this poem I wrote in homage to her. So this is not new. I changed it slightly to use four words from the list. But I couldn't say it this well now, when my poor head is so very weary. Smiles. I just wanted to share it with you.