mary oliver & let's think about life

It's #PoetryThursday, which doesn't sound catchy at all. But that's okay. Poetry, y'all.

A friend recently introduced me to Mary Oliver, who is "this country's best-selling poet" according to the New York Times. I don't think I had heard of her, and that was sad, so today I'm going to introduce you, too. I can't find the poem that my friend had - though it was so good. Today, I share "The Kingfisher."

THE KINGFISHER
Mary Oliver

The kingfisher rises out of the black wave
like a blue flower, in his beak
he carries a silver leaf. I think this is
the prettiest world - so long as you don't mind
a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life
that doesn't have its splash of happiness?
There are more fish than there are leaves
on a thousand trees, and anyway the kingfisher
wasn't born to think about it, or anything else.
When the wave snaps shut over his blue head, the water
remains water - hunger is the only story
he has ever heard in his life that he could believe.
I don't say he's right. Neither
do I say he's wrong. Religiously he swallows the silver leaf
with its broken red river, and with a rough and easy cry
I couldn't rouse out of my thoughtful body
if my life depended on it, he swings back
over the bright sea to do the same thing, to do it
(as I long to something, anything) perfectly.


Pause. Read it. Re-read it. Honestly. Go have a coffee, re-read it, and write how it makes you feel. Come on. You're not in grade-school, yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give interesting things some reflection.