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Thread: RIP Mary Oliver

  1. #1
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    RIP Mary Oliver

    Unfortunately, in addition to Jack Bogle, we have another sad departing.

    Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets, but I'm certainly not alone. I love the way she imbues the natural world with deep significance and spirituality.

    This was posted today on her Facebook page:

    When Death Comes

    When death comes
    like the hungry bear in autumn;

    when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
    to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

    when death comes
    like the measle-pox;

    when death comes
    like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

    I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
    what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

    And therefore I look upon everything
    as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
    and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
    and I consider eternity as another possibility,

    and I think of each life as a flower, as common
    as a field daisy, and as singular,

    and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
    tending, as all music does, toward silence,

    and each body a lion of courage, and something
    precious to the earth.

    When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
    I was a bride married to amazement.
    I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

    When it’s over, I don't want to wonder
    if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
    I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
    or full of argument.

    I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  2. #2
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    😢

  3. #3
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    Thank you for posting this poem, Catherine.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  4. #4
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    Mary Oliver has been one of my very favorite poets. I am very sad to see this.

  5. #5
    Senior Member
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    Beautiful words. Thanks, Catherine.

  6. #6
    Senior Member
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    I have loved her poetry since I discovered it several years ago. She will be missed.

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