October 06, 2005
summer day
clouds, Canon Digital Rebel
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
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?
How did you get all those cottonballs stuck to the sky like that?
Posted by: Coasta Rica Spanish Immersion at October 9, 2005 10:03 PMOh my, I have always loved that passage! Totally inspired me today. Thanks chica. :)
Posted by: Carrie at October 9, 2005 01:47 PMThe last two lines of this quote have been up on my door for a year now. It is great to see the entire poem. Thank you!
Posted by: Swirly at October 8, 2005 10:18 PMbeautiful. i've always loved that poem... and that last line is such a kicker.
Posted by: melanie at October 8, 2005 10:50 AMI don't know exactly what a prayer is either. I really enjoyed the poem. Thank you.
Posted by: LB at October 7, 2005 04:51 PMBeautiful poem.
Posted by: Milly at October 7, 2005 04:50 PMThey say here that when the sky looks like that it means that there are plenty of fish biting in the sea - good day for fishing. I dunno how true that is (highly doubt it) but its always fun to look up and think of it:)
love the poem. funny how easily we forget how to be still. sending you a hug, andrea...
Posted by: sheela at October 7, 2005 02:36 AMi love mary oliver...
Posted by: stef at October 6, 2005 09:58 PMI found your blog looking for coffee pictures online and I am amazed at your ability both with words and photographs. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the world...
Would you mind if I used the coffee mug from the man-in-my-cappuccino 2003 entry on my LiveJournal? It would fit perfectly. Just let me know. Thanks.
sincerely,
aj
Oh my gosh!!! WOW!! Great pict!
Posted by: G-Man at October 6, 2005 08:36 PMOh my gosh!!! WOW!! Great pict!
Posted by: G-Man at October 6, 2005 08:36 PMThis is one of my most favorite of poems and that last line so sums it up... my wild and precious life! Thank you Andrea. I finally realized today - in my body realized - what to do with my life. It is the best.
life is for having fun. I played hard today and got down and dirty and really into it. I played like I knew what I was doing - finally. and my body always knew and laughed at me and how silly I have been with all this "trying" business I was doing - all that serious stuff that wasn't really it at all.
this picture is just crazy :)
Posted by: kim at October 6, 2005 04:53 PMWow...How do you know exactly what I need to read each and every day??
Posted by: yasmin at October 6, 2005 03:46 PMas a child the grumbly old next door neighbour, who owned the biggest shed filled with treasures that i loved to explore and glean for the leftovers, used tocall me a grasshopper. as i read this memories flounded my body the smell of the musty old shed the shadows slipping through the cracks
as i fill up my own life with treasures i need to remember how to be a grasshopper to be idle and blessed
Posted by: kate at October 6, 2005 03:21 PMThis is the poem that was my introduction to the splendid Mary Oliver.
That gathering of cotton ball clouds is what I miss (weather-wise) the most about not living in CA. Every so often a tropical storm would surge up from Mexico and create that kind of periwinkle blue sky and fat, round clouds. Then we'd go down to the beach where the water would seem like it was moving in a bit of slow motion ... like it had turned to lava or something, and invariably there'd be a school of dolphins that would go by, and it would feel like a dream or a fairy tale or something.
Posted by: Pamela at October 6, 2005 10:41 AMThis is one of my favorite poems...I just love Mary Oliver...I could eat her up and never get enough of her. She's so inspiring...you get the awesome poetry and then that punch to the gut that she throws into her words...that punch that wakes you up and makes you look at life with fuller eyes...love it!
Posted by: Michelle Ensminger at October 6, 2005 10:15 AMBeautiful... especially the last line. I plan to not worry about the mess, but live in it in all its chaotic, joyous glory.
Posted by: Kelly at October 6, 2005 09:55 AMReveling in creation and the One who made it seems like a good choice... :)
Posted by: wilsonian at October 6, 2005 09:45 AM