Why I Wake Early

by Mary Oliver

I believe I will never quite know. Though I play at the edges of knowing, truly I know our part is not knowing, but looking, and touching, and loving, which is the way I walked on, softly, through the pale-pink morning light.

He made the circles of the days and the seasons to close tightly, and forever— then open again.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we only look, and see.