Blossums Along The Way: Mary Oliver

 

BY MARY OLIVER

If you're John Muir you want trees to live among. 

If you're Emily, a garden will do. 
Try to find the right place for yourself. 
If you can't find it, at least dream of it. 
                                             •

When one is alone and lonely, the body
gladly lingers in the wind or the rain, 
or splashes into the cold river, or
pushes through the ice-crusted snow. 
Anything that touches. 
                                             •

God, or the gods, are invisible, quite
understandable. But holiness is visible, 
entirely. 
                                             •

Some words will never leave God's mouth, 
no matter how hard you listen.  
                                             •

In all the works of Beethoven, you will 
not find a single lie.
                                             •

All important ideas must include the trees,
the mountains, and the rivers. 
                                             •

To understand many things you must reach out 
of your own condition. 
                                             •

For how many years did I wander slowly 
through the forest. What wonder and 
glory I would have missed had I ever been
in a hurry!
                                             •

Beauty can both shout and whisper, and still
it explains nothing. 
                                             •

The point is, you're you, and that's for keeps.

---

Excerpted from Mary Oliver's collection of poetry, Felicity, published by Penguin Press in October, 2015.