A Gathering of Poetry: December 2023

 

It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. My SiL sent me the above photo and I thought it was so lovely that I was compelled to find a poem that went with it. As is so often the case, Mary Oliver had written the perfect one. 

The Place I Want to Get Back To
by Mary Oliver

The place I want to get back to
is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness
and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me
they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let’s see who she is
and why she is sitting
on the ground like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;
and so they came
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way
I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward
and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?

For twenty years 

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can’t be repeated.
If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

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Oliver, Mary. "The Place I Want to Get Back To." Thirst, Beacon Press, 2007.

You can read more about the poet here. 

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