~Lead~ by Mary Oliver

sweetpotato

Lead

Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Smarter_Than_U

she is so good.

Smarter_Than_U

Let me expand upon what I said above, because I know many of you are wondering "Why Smarter_Than_U, is Mary Oliver just that good?" The reason she is such a great poet is that she lets her ideas breathe. Her language is powerful because she makes charged statements without being strident. She keeps things simple (her language, her imagery) and she is not afraid to be inspiring. She really is one of the best of our time...