Swans are always related to beauty aren't they? And they're described most beautifully here - 'An armful of white blossoms,/a perfect commotion of silk and linen... a snowbank, a bank of lilies...' No one pays as much attention to beauty as Mary Oliver I think.
But more than that- 'And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?' Mary Oliver puts it to us - have we figured out what beauty is for? And if we have, have we changed our lives in wake of that revelation?
Makes you think, doesn't it?
The Swan - Mary Oliver
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air,
an armful of white blossoms
a perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings: a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
a shrill dark music, like the rain pelting the trees,
like a waterfall
knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
a white cross streaming across the sky, its feet
like black leaves, its wings like the stretching light
of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
Ahhh, so pretty.
ReplyDeleteI found Mary Oliver quite late in my poetry-reading, and even now I haven't read much of her work. But I do always enjoy the poems I stumble across, so maybe I should get hold of an actual volume...
"a perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned / into the bondage of its wings" - perfection.
I wrote a draft of a poem about magpies yesterday - maybe there's something in the air! x
Cheryl, you have to read more Mary Oliver, she is amazing! Her poems are so uplifting and explore what it is to really live, and appreciate life, and revel in its beauty. You won't regret it!
DeleteMagpies, cool - do you ever post some poetry on your blog? You should!