Sacred Life Sunday
The snow
began here
this morning and all day
continued, its white
rhetoric everywhere
calling us back to why, how,
whence such beauty and what
the meaning;
such
an oracular fever! flowing
past windows, an energy it seemed
would never ebb, never settle
less than lovely! and only now,
deep into night,
it has finally ended.
The silence
is immense,
and the heavens still hold
a million candles; nowhere
the familiar things:
stars, the moon,
the darkness we expect
and nightly turn from. Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creekbed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain–not a single
answer has been found–
walking out now
into the silence and the light
under the trees,
and through the fields,
feels like one.
Mary Oliver
New and Selected Poems: Volume One
New and Selected Poems, Volume Two
1 comment
Thank you for this, Rachelle. I love a _light dusting_ of snow, bicycles and Mary Oliver. A perfect match of words to image.
I re-read the post this Tuesday morning to remind me to ask the the “why, how and whence” about important things and to imagine some snow-muffled silence and stillness. These thoughts will help me keep my perspective (and sanity) during my workday.
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