Stepping through the Door
June 13, 2012 5 Comments
A special thank you to Arjuna at The Wondrous Dharma for sharing this beautiful Mary Oliver poem with me. It has given much to think about this morning, and so I wanted to pass it along:
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a 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
Beautiful!
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing it.
Russ
I love this poem by Mary Oliver, especially the line about living her life as a bride married to amazement! So please to have you comment on a post at my own blog. I know I will be enjoying your blog now!
Remarkable words that raises the value of every life above all wealth in the world.
I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. if you choose to accept the rules are posted at http://geniespeaks.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/versatile-blogger-award-2/. If you choose not to accept – that’s okay. I just wanted to publicly acknowledge that I enjoy your blog.