Felicity

by Mary Oliver

Isn’t everything in the world shared?

Leaves and Blossoms Along the Way If you’re John Muir you want trees to live among. If you’re Emily, a garden will do. Try to find the right place for yourself. If you can’t find it, at least dream of it. • When one is alone and lonely, the body gladly lingers in the wind or the rain, or splashes into the cold river, or pushes through the ice-crusted snow. Anything that touches. • God, or the gods, are invisible, quite understandable. But holiness is visible, entirely. • Some words will never leave God’s mouth, no matter how hard you listen.

In all the works of Beethoven, you will not find a single lie. • All important ideas must include the trees, the mountains, and the rivers. • To understand many things you must reach out of your own condition. • For how many years did I wander slowly through the forest. What wonder and glory I would have missed had I ever been in a hurry! • Beauty can both shout and whisper, and still it explains nothing. • The point is, you’re you, and that’s for keeps.

Nothing Is Too Small Not to Be Wondered About

Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look up into that blue space? Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions. And don’t worry about what language you use, God no doubt understands them all.

Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul. But isn’t the return of spring and how it springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint? Yes, I know, God’s silence never breaks, but is that really a problem?

Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly.

Humility Poems arrive ready to begin. Poets are only the transportation.