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View Full Version : RIP Mary Oliver



catherine
1-17-19, 1:08pm
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.

CathyA
1-17-19, 1:42pm
😢

razz
1-17-19, 5:09pm
Thank you for posting this poem, Catherine.

mschrisgo2
1-17-19, 11:48pm
Mary Oliver has been one of my very favorite poets. I am very sad to see this.

Lainey
1-18-19, 9:40am
Beautiful words. Thanks, Catherine.

frugalone
1-24-19, 12:52pm
I have loved her poetry since I discovered it several years ago. She will be missed.