Felicity

by Mary Oliver

“You broke the cage and flew.”

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

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.

Yesterday the wildest storm I ever witnessed flew past west to east, a shaggy howling sky-beast

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.

No, I’d never been to this country before. No, I didn’t know where the roads would lead me. No, I didn’t intend to turn back.

How do I love you? Oh, this way and that way. Oh, happily. Perhaps I may elaborate by demonstration? Like this, and like this and no more words now