Sunday, August 29, 2010

A Poem for a Summer Sunday


The Sun

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats towards the horizon

[A photo I snapped of my friend, Caroline, taking in a Boston sunset]. 

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything

such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?  

-Mary Oliver, New & Selected Poems: Volume One 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Rebecca, this poem blew me away...thank you!

Neil Ringrose said...

Its a monday morning in Hong Kong, but it's still sunny! Thanks for posting this - have a great day!

Om Gal said...

You are reading OG in HK? Now, THAT is cool. Happy you both liked it. The book is incredible, with many more masterpieces:-)