Everything, Mary Oliver

Everything

 

I want to make poems that say right out, plainly,

what I mean, that don't go looking for the

laces of elaboration, puffed sleeves.  I want to

keep close and use often words like

heavy, heart, joy, soon, and to cherish

the question mark and her bold sister

 

the dash.  I want to write with quiet hands.  I

want to write while crossing the fields that are

fresh with daises and everlasting and the

ordinary grass.  I want to make poems while thinking of

the bread of heaven and the

cup of astonishment; let them be

 

songs in which nothing is neglected,

not a hope, not a promise.  I want to make poems

that look into the earth and the heavens

and see the unseeable.  I want them to honor

both the heart of faith, and the light of the world;

the gladness that says, without any words, everything.

 

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(New and Selected Poems Volume Two)