Felicity

by Mary Oliver

“Wild roses,” I said to them one morning. “Do you have the answers? And if you do, would you tell me?” The roses laughed softly. “Forgive us,” they said. “But as you can see, we are just now entirely busy being roses.”

There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled.

There is nothing more pathetic than caution when headlong might save a life, even, possibly, your own.

The world I live in and believe in is wider than that. And anyway, what’s wrong with Maybe?

Try to find the right place for yourself. If you can’t find it, at least dream of it.

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.

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.

What is the reason for it? “Wasn’t your friendship always as beautiful as a flame?”

In those days I was starving for happiness. So, say it was both silly and serious. Say it was the first warm sting of possibility. Say I sensed the spreading warmth of joy.

I Know Someone I know someone who kisses the way a flower opens, but more rapidly. Flowers are sweet. They have short, beatific lives. They offer much pleasure. There is nothing in the world that can be said against them. Sad, isn’t it, that all they can kiss is the air.

I Did Think, Let’s Go About This Slowly I did think, let’s go about this slowly. This is important. This should take some really deep thought. We should take small thoughtful steps. But, bless us, we didn’t.

I can’t remember every spring, I can’t remember everything— so many years! Are the morning kisses the sweetest or the evenings or the inbetweens? All I know is that “thank you” should appear somewhere. So, just in case I can’t find the perfect place— “Thank you, thank you.”