[I was going to post a quote from the new Bob Dylan book, and I still might, another day, but I was recently re-reminded of this poem and had to share.--Eshtine)
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
--Mary Oliver
Cool poem.....to answer the question the poem posed....today, i am going to shower, get my hair done,help my little sister get ready for a dance, etc...
Posted by: beth at October 23, 2004 11:05 AMI was going to compliment you on the poem until I saw you didn't write it. It is a reminder to be aware of life, not to life in our heads or in the past. A good reminder. So is the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Posted by: kit gefallen at October 27, 2004 01:41 PM