Thursday, January 17, 2019

Sorrow in Hobe Sound

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

3 comments:

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  2. I don't know Mary Oliver, but it seems that she's inspired you to pay attention to the little miracles that surround us courtesy of a loving, nuturing Mother Earth. If a poem can make one person pay such attention, it was worth the effort.

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