This poem, One, by Mary Oliver, published in Why I Wake Early, shows us the beauty and fragility of the world and our place in it together. See more beautiful poems by this poet posted here.
One
The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.
How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And then I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and sky.
Imagine it!
A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination.
Tags: blue planet, fragile earth, Mary Oliver, our place in the world
The Uncarved Blog 
January 20, 2019 at 12:51 am |
[…] Varanasi, Praying, Wild Geese, Sunrise, White Owl Flies Into And Out Of The Field, The Journey, One, and When Death Comes, which was included in her obituary Jan 17, […]
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January 20, 2019 at 1:14 am |
[…] the order I discovered them: The Journey, Wild Geese, Praying, Varanasi, Summer Day, At the Lake, One, White Owl Flies Into And Out Of The Field, Sunrise, and When Death Comes, which was included here […]
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