Morning Poem

In previous years I have posted a Thanksgiving prayer. This year I decided to share a Mary Oliver poem. When I moved back to the Berkshires last year I was thinking about friendships and the cultural life. I had almost forgotten about the natural beauty, how around every bend in the road there is an inspiring vista. When “every pond…is a prayer” I find peace even in sadness and joy “every morning.”

Morning Poem

Every morning

the world

is created.

Under the orange

sticks of the sun

the heaped

ashes of the night

turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches –

and the ponds appear

like black cloth

on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.

If it is your nature

to be happy

you will swim away along soft trails

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere.

And if your spirit

carries within it

the thorn

that is heavier than lead –

if it’s all you can do

to keep on trudging –

there is still

somewhere deep within you

a beast shouting that the earth

is exactly what it wanted –

each pond with its blazing lilies

is a prayer heard and answered

lavishly,

every morning,

whether or not

you have ever dared to be happy,

whether or not

you have ever dared to pray.