Friday, August 28, 2009

after rain


I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life
?

~from The Summer Day by Mary Oliver~







1 comment:

Paige said...

it doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate; this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

- mary oliver