A Midsummer Day’s Meditation

Many gems in this treasure trove of poetry from Mary Oliver’s Devotions. For a birder, these simple words particularly resonate. Sharing a few here:

THIS MORNING

This morning the redbirds’ eggs
have hatched and already the chicks
are chirping for food. They don’t
know where it’s coming from, they
just keep shouting, “More! More!”
As to anything else, they haven’t
had a single thought. Their eyes
haven’t yet opened, they know nothing
about the sky that’s waiting. Or
the thousands, the millions of trees.
They don’t even know they have wings.

And just like that, like a simple
neighborhood event, a miracle is
taking place.

I WAKE CLOSE TO MORNING

Why do people keep asking to see
God’s identity papers
when the darkness opening into morning
is more than enough?
Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.
Think of Sheba approaching
the kingdom of Solomon.
Do you think she had to ask,
“Is this the place?”

ON MEDITATING, SORT OF

Meditation, so I’ve heard, is best accomplished
if you entertain a certain strict posture.
Frankly, I prefer just to lounge under a tree.
So why should I think I could ever be successful?

Some days I fall asleep, or land in that
even better place—half asleep—where the world,
spring, summer, autumn, winter—
flies through my mind in its
hardy ascent and its uncompromising descent.

So I just lie like that, while distance and time
reveal their true attitudes: they never
heard of me, and never will, or ever need to.

Of course I wake up finally
thinking, how wonderful to be who I am,
made out of earth and water,
my own thoughts, my own fingerprints—
all that glorious, temporary stuff.


THE WORLD I LIVE IN

I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what’s wrong with Maybe?

You wouldn’t believe what once or
twice I have seen. I’ll just
tell you this:
only if there are angels in your head will you
ever, possibly, see one.

***

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Arti

If she’s not birding by the Pond, Arti’s likely watching a movie, reading, or writing a review. Creator of Ripple Effects, bylines in Asian American Press, Vague Visages, Curator Magazine.

19 thoughts on “A Midsummer Day’s Meditation”

  1. Re: the last poem — it made me remember my favorite reversal in the world. Instead of ‘seeing is believing,’ I’ve often thought that ‘believing is seeing.’ Or at least it leads to clearer vision!

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        1. Have no interest but read that it’s very philosophical. That piques my interest. But most likely I’ll skip it. Pink isn’t my colour. And I’d never played with Barbies. 😐

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          1. I played with Barbies when I was a kid but I’m not a fan of pink, and my Barbies went on more rugged adventures than most I suspect, though they were generally well dressed in impractical outfits 😀 Maybe I’ll watch it when/if it comes to streaming.

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  3. I love it when people share their special reading experiences about nature, and the writers that made a difference . We were assigned to read Mary Oliver in an environmental literature class at my college.
    That said, do you know the author Sharman Apt Russell? Her work is beautiful and well researched—check out “ Anatomy of a Rose” or “An Obsession With Butterflies.”

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  4. Lovely, Arti! God is real and we are so blessed. We love seeing the baby sparrows in Springtime, scattering about on our patio, hurrying to get ahead of their mama sparrow, and then stopping and fluttering their wings while bobbing a bit in front of her, for her to feed them from her mouth. Often there are twins to each mom.
    God bless, C-Marie

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  7. Thank you so much for these. “I Wake Close to Morning” made me laugh out loud, about the Queen of Sheba. In the meditation poem, I think there are typos in this line, “hardy accent and its uncompromising decent.” Shouldn’t that be *ascent* and *descent*?

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