A Poem from Mary Oliver

For August, I am taking a writing break. So, I thought it would be a good time to share with you a few poems, hymns, and prayers that have been meaningful to me recently. I hope, as you read them, that they will resonate with you in some way. 

This week’s poem is from Mary Oliver (1935-2019) and comes from Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver. 

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? 


~ Melissa