Your Favorite Poems

SoNotHer · 06-29-2012, 02:39 PM

The Poet Visits the Museum of Fine Arts
by Mary Oliver

For a long time
I was not even
in this world, yet
every summer

every rose
opened in perfect sweetness
and lived
in gracious repose,

in its own exotic fragrance,
in its huge willingness to give
something, from its small self,
to the entirety of the world.

I think of them, thousands upon thousands,
in many lands,
whenever summer came to them,
rising

out of the patience of patience,
to leaf and bud and look up
into the blue sky
or, with thanks,

into the rain
that would feed
their thirsty roots
latched into the earth—

sandy or hard, Vermont or Arabia,
what did it matter,
the answer was simply to rise
in joyfulness, all their days.

Have I found any better teaching?
Not ever, not yet.
Last week I saw my first Botticelli
and almost fainted,

and if I could I would paint like that
but am shelved somewhere below, with a few songs
about roses: teachers, also, of the ways
toward thanks, and praise.

06-29-2012, 02:39 PM	#9
SoNotHer Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Professional Sandbagger and Jenga Zumba Instructor Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: In the master control room of my world domination dreams Posts: 2,811 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 6,587 Thanked 4,734 Times in 1,409 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	The Poet Visits the Museum of Fine Arts by Mary Oliver For a long time I was not even in this world, yet every summer every rose opened in perfect sweetness and lived in gracious repose, in its own exotic fragrance, in its huge willingness to give something, from its small self, to the entirety of the world. I think of them, thousands upon thousands, in many lands, whenever summer came to them, rising out of the patience of patience, to leaf and bud and look up into the blue sky or, with thanks, into the rain that would feed their thirsty roots latched into the earth— sandy or hard, Vermont or Arabia, what did it matter, the answer was simply to rise in joyfulness, all their days. Have I found any better teaching? Not ever, not yet. Last week I saw my first Botticelli and almost fainted, and if I could I would paint like that but am shelved somewhere below, with a few songs about roses: teachers, also, of the ways toward thanks, and praise.