Thursday, November 26, 2009

Beautiful And True

Patience
by Mary Oliver

What is the good life now? Why,
look here, consider
the moon's white crescent

rounding, slowly, over
the half month to still another 
perfect circle--

the shining eye
that lightens the hills,
that lay down the shadows

of the branches of the trees,
that summons the flowers
to open their sleepy faces and look up

into the heavens.
I used to hurry everywhere,
and leaped over the running creeks.

There wasn't 
time enough for all the wonderful things
I could think of to do

in a single day. Patience
comes to the bones
before it takes root in the heart

as another good idea.
I say this
as I stand in the woods

and study the patterns
of the moon shadows,
or stroll down into the waters

that now, late summer, have also 
caught fever, and hardly move
from one eternity to another.

from--New And Selected Poems Volume Two

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