nana’s Reviews > Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver > Status Update

that green energy
rose like a wave
and curled over me, claiming me
in its husky arms
i pushed them away, but i didnt rise
never in my life had i felt so plush,
or so slippery,
or so resplendently empty.
never in my life
had i felt myself so near
that porous line
where my own body was done with
and the roots and the stems and the flowers
began.


eu queria morar nesse poema

what misery to be afraid of death
what wretchedness to believe only in what can be proven

we did not know she was sick, but she has come to the fence, walking like a woman who is balancing a sword inside of her body [...]

a carpenter is hired - a roof repaired, a porch rebuilt. everything that can be fixed.

june, july, august. every day, we hear their laughter. i think of the painting by van gogh, the man in the chair. everything wrong, and nowhere to go. his hands over his eyes.

"And, while I waited, have I not leaned close, to see everything?
Have I not been stung as I watched their milling and gleaming, and stung hard?
Have I not been ready always at the iron door,
not knowing to what country it opens to death or to more life?"

eu quando eu era pequena e enfiei a cara dentro da capelinha pra cheirar as flores e uma abelha me picou bem em cima do meu olho

and to tell the truth i dont want to let go of the wrists of idleness, i dont want to sell my life for money, i dont even want to come in out of the rain

stones poem hitting different after i found a big spondylus shell at the river (dont ask) and tried to take it for myself (i fell down the stones got hurt snapped my sandals that actually belonged to a deceased friend and i was so sad i didnt remember to pick up the shell before i left. it stayed at the river

"i hope i would leave them, in the perfect balance of things, in the clear body of the sea" but its a river

it was like a painting done twice and, twice, tenderly

the smallest snake with eyes like two little stars 💗

the years to come - this is a promise -
will grant you ample time

to try the difficult steps in the empire of thought
where you seek for the shining proofs you think you must have

but nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding
than this deepest affinity between your eyes and the world

i was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell; grant me, in your mercy, a little more time.