Beautiful, sunny, summer days really make us appreciate life more. We lull and laze in sunshine and blue skies and look more at our surroundings.
But - they also make us think. This really is a precious life - and we shouldn't waste a moment of it.
Mary Oliver, as always, for a check-in to what really matters.
The Summer Day - Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
*Oh and I just realise I have this poem posted before!!! Oh well... it is a very important poem, and some readers may not have seen it the first time, so.... here it is again, in all its gorgeous glory!
ReplyDeletehi siobhan, this one is a favourite!thanks!by the way i don't always see the daily poems i think?where are they hidden-or is it some new weird facebook setting?xcaroline
ReplyDeleteHey Caroline, thanks for your comment! No - I don't always post the link on Facebook - only sometimes. You can sign up by email by entering your email address into the top right hand corner here and they'll be delivered to your inbox, a poem a day, every day!!
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