[lit-ideas] Re: For Andy
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 00:16:41 -0400
Thank you. I didn't expect a poem. Lilies as God's way of making up for his
creations' shortcomings. It's funny because I love flowers. I guess they make
up for my shortcomings. My house is filled with artificial arrangements (I
call them immortal; cut flowers are dead) and live plants and pictures of
flowers. There's a spareness and hardness to this poem, the sticks of the sun,
ashes, black cloth. No soft edges at all. Even the calls to happiness and to
pray are a dare. I guess that's a pretty realistic description of a realist.
Too bad God isn't a bit more of a realist. Thank you for posting it.
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Geary
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 5/23/2006 11:04:10 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] For Andy
MORNING POEM
by Mary Oliver
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches --
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier than lead --
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging --
there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted --
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.
*****
Mike Geary
Memphis
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