Don't Love Your Life Too Much
Continuing our National Poetry Monthly selections, an excerpt from Mary Oliver, one of our finest poets and one of the few who can actually sell out a reading:
For years and years I struggled the butterfly and vanished
just to love my life. And then
rose, weightless in the wind.
"Don't love your life
too much," it said,
into the world.
from "One or Two Things"
And something new from me:
Lightning in a Bottle Dozens of interlaced
nerves branch out
like ant pathways
in all directions
crackling like a hundred
tiny electrical fires if
I could find the switch
I could sleep.
Labels: Mary Oliver, National Poetry Month, Poems, poetry
posted by Greg at 10:21 AM
6 Comments:
Love those last two lines.
Picky comment alert: Can things (plants or nerves) branch into stalks? I always think of the stalk as the main line off of which smaller lines branch.
I feel a little guilty making such a comment because I don't have alternative wording to suggest.
Actually that's a good question. I need to think about that. thanks for the feedback!
After further reflection, see slight edit. Thanks Jim!
OK! I especially like the way the title and the last two lines reinforce each other.
I especially like how the title and the last two lines reinforce each other.
Nice...
Thanks Jim!
Post a Comment
<< Home