Mary Oliver, Poet
1935 - 2019
Sorrow
in Hobe Sound
I
will miss you, Mary Oliver and
those
nature-heavy rapturous odes
the
frankness of your blank verse
presented
in a way that it feels like
we
are having a private conversation
and
the only others privy are your
little
muses – spotted owls, fluttering
butterflies,
leaping frogs, a wedge of
plump
geese, the sun and the stars
you will be missed by
so
many who expect to see you there
stood
in the weeds scribbling in your
notebook
praising the splendor of the
outdoors
while carping human crimes
gluttony,
despoilment, intemperance
I will miss you, Mary Oliver
I’ll
sing your poetic messages across
a
sun-filled harbour at the top of my
lungs
so long as you promise to give
our Brother Poet, Walt Whitman my
very
best
I will miss you, Mary Oliver
and
while I wander in mourning I’ll
go
in search of skunk cabbage I’ll go
deep
into the woods you loved until
I
find what you told me to look for.
Goodbye,
Mary Oliver
cloistered Oracle of Poesy
there
is deep sorrow in Hobe Sound
today
and it reverberates in my heart
***
My
heart is heavy today. Mary Oliver died. She leaves behind an extraordinary body
of work that will inspire me the rest of my days.
In
propinquity,
Nic
