The Uncarved Blog

At the Lake

A fish leaps like a black pin — then — when the starlight strikes its side —

like a silver pin. In an instant the fish’s spine alters the fierce line of rising

and it curls a little — the head, like scalloped tin, plunges back, and it’s gone.

This is, I think, what holiness is: the natural world, where every moment is full

of the passion to keep moving. Inside every mind there’s a hermit’s cave full of light,

full of snow, full of concentration. I’ve knelt there, and so have you,

hanging on to what you love, to what is lovely. The lake’s

shining sheets don’t make a ripple now, and the stars are going off to their blue sleep,

but the words are in place — and the fish leaps, and leaps again from the black plush of the poem, that breathless space.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(White Pine)

Rolf Erickson’s Mirror Lake creates a cosmic connection for the reader.

Enjoy these other lovely poems by Mary Oliver: Summer Day, Varanasi, Praying, Wild Geese, Sunrise, White Owl Flies Into And Out Of The Field, The Journey, One, The Loon, and When Death Comes, which was included in her obituary Jan 17, 2019.

See this remembrance of Mary Oliver (1935-2019) and her astonishing poetry, with links to articles, interviews, and readings, as well as more of her favorite poems I’ve loved and posted over the years.

Tags: creativity, Mary Oliver, nature, writing poetry

This entry was posted on May 27, 2015 at 11:37 am and is filed under Literature, Mary Oliver, Other poems, Poetry, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.