A TRULY GREAT POET—More Profound and Enlightening Poems from Mary Oliver
Five poems which are so drenched with love and meaning that they are like honey for the soul
THE DAWNING LIGHT—Daily Journal of Transformational Writing
Volume 8, Issue # 868 for Wednesday, April 3, 2024
REVELATIONS and Pearls of Wisdom Section # 60 Lightning Bolts of Positive and Inspiring Wisdom written or selected by Chinmayan
Mary Oliver was an outstanding performer of her poetry
A TRULY GREAT POET—MORE PROFOUND and ENLIGHTENING POEMS from MARY OLIVER
Five powerful poems that will set your soul aflame with love, like honey for the soul
This is part two of a series celebrating Mary’s life and work…here is part one
:
A TRULY GREAT POET…
A truly great poet creates verses that are so rich in so many levels of emotion, meaning and gentle love that you adopt them as a close heart companion for life… because their poems are like wells of living light which open your mind and heart and feed your soul in a new way every time you read them.
They become like reliable old friends that you turn to in times of need for solace and inspiration and their words and phrases become foundations for our life.
A great poet is always standing at the door of your own secret sanctuary, welcoming and inviting you to come in.
Their poems are like the songs being sung deep in your heart and soul which may bring tears or a smile, but which you recognize are carrying an uplifting message that you know you need to hear.
Poets like this are extremely rare, and when we discover one… it is a delight to welcome them into our life as the dearest of friends and the most respected of mentors.
POETS LIKE THIS…
Poets like this sincerely see themselves as humble servants who use their talent to give voice to a higher source, far beyond their personal ego.
They are like flutes that the divine is using to express the beautiful music of souls suffused with light with such sweetness that we can hear this celestial symphony when we read or recite their poetry.
Poets like this know that being vessels for these transcendental poems is the purpose of their life and devote themselves completely to this higher purpose and refuse to compromise.
Mary lived very simply, so that she would be free to focus on writing and polishing her poetry, which she knew beyond any doubt was her calling…
For Mary, writing was the always the priority, the passion and the purpose of her life.
I think of Mary Oliver going into dumpsters behind restaurants to find dinner or her willingness to take any kind of job just to pay the bills…as long as it left her free to write and work on her poems, for she always knew that was her real work, her real service to the world.
I understand all of this in more ways than I can tell you, for she and I are kindred spirits on similar paths. I recognize myself in her life and her work, as I live with the same burning devotion to writing and crafting poetry and desire to be of service to the world through this work.
I AM GRATEFUL FOR HER POETRY
I am grateful that we have her poetry, and for her lifelong dedication to her craft, now that she is gone from this world.
She enriched us all through this magnificent body of work that she left behind for us.
Each of her poems are doorways to the light and love of our inner world, and I celebrate her as one of my dearest friends…
THESE POEMS THAT I AM SHARING all reveal Mary’s deeply spiritual nature…
You can find all of these heart opening poems in Mary’s last book “Devotions” (and I highly recommend that if you love these poems, then treat yourself to a hard cover copy, so you can underline favorite lines and have all 455 pages available for exploring…).
Except for “The Buddha’s Last Instruction”, which I believe is one of her own last poems.
Image courtesy of Pixabay
"THE BUDDHA'S LAST INSTRUCTION”
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal — a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire —
clearly I'm not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
THE SUMMER DAY
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
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?
A woman doing morning puja at Varanasi Ghat, India Credit: Pixabay
HERE IS AN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL VIDEO of Mary Oliver performing two of her poems and then having a lively, and seriously enlightening conversation with Coleman Barks in August, 2001
Mary Oliver with Coleman Barks performance and conversation
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“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
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If only…