Something Particular and Real

Tuesday, September 25

A while ago I was fortunate enough to burrow away long enough to meditate on some of Mary Oliver's latest poems. Have you read her work? She's one of my favorite modern day poets. I found the end of her poem "When Death Comes" particularly stirring:

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

--Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1