Memories

with deep gratitude to Mary Oliver

poetry fills my inbox these days,

offering me gentle reminders of when
i first read wild geese or calling me to
notice the poster that hangs above
my desk, a gift in the days of
trying to remember
all the people who shared
with me the question of what I wanted to do
with my one wild and precious life.
and gave me a copies of
a summer day
and there were those who
supported  me as I strove to  live my life
to silence those voices that kept 
shouting their bad advice  until finally
i could save the only life, i (you)  could.
those who gifted me
with books, filled with stories i knew
that i wanted to know, stories of Devotion
of Dream Work  of oh so many reasons
to wake early.

But most of all I am reminded of

the day, that we were
biking through the rain, water washing our
pants and our wheels in Provincetown,

and we saw her

our poet, our hero

with her yellow raincoat and rain hat
laughing with us in the puddles,

Now  ....

I can hear you  ask, did you really see her?
and I say to you every morning the world is 
created...if it is your nature to be 
happy, you will swim away along the soft trails
...your imagination alighting everywhere. 


gkn January 2019

with quotes from Mary Oliver's poems ( Wild Geese, A Summer Day, The Journey,
                              Morning Poem)  as well as some of her book titles.