A Poem For Today - This World

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KDick...@aol.com

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Jun 10, 2014, 12:55:15 PM6/10/14
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This World 

I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it
nothing fancy.
But it seems impossible.
Whatever the subject, the morning sun
glimmers it.
The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open and becomes a star.
The ants bore into the peony bud and there is a dark
pinprick well of sweetness.
As for the stones on the beach, forget it.
Each one could be set in gold.
So I tried with my eyes shut, but of course the birds
were singing.
And the aspen trees were shaking the sweetest music
out of their leaves.
And that was followed by, guess what, a momentous and
beautiful silence
as comes to all of us, in little earfuls, if we’re not too
hurried to hear it.
As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs
even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe the stars sing too,
and the ants, and the peonies, and the warm stones,
so happy to be where they are, on the beach, instead of being
locked up in gold.

- Mary Oliver

johnja...@gmail.com

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Jun 10, 2014, 1:06:28 PM6/10/14
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Ah, it's funny, when I started reading this, the poet's name at the bottom was hidden from my view, and Ken wisely does not put the poet's name by the title, lest it prevent us from reading the poem with fresh eyes.

As I scrolled down and Mary Oliver's name appeared, the smile on my face said,

"Of course. Who else could it be?"

From someone who turns out masterpieces like Duke Ellington did, one after another, even so, this one really brings tears to my eyes.

Another little piece of paradise.

Thank you.

Jai


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--


John "Jai" Conley
Wordsmith: Writer/Editor
Faculty/Writing Coach, Pre-Health Professions Certificate Program, San Francisco State University

I gaze on myself in the stream's emerald flow
Or sit on a boulder by a cliff.
My mind, a lonely cloud, leans on nothing,
Needs nothing from the world and its endless events. 

 - Han Shan (9th century)




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