I can’t quite believe I haven’t quoted this before… another gem from Mary Oliver:
just pay attention,
then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate,
this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks,
and a silence in which another voice may speak.
Read the entire poem here
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The last two lines of this poem I have on the bottom bar of the blog I put together about my walk along the Camino. (http://chemincamino08.blogspot.com/) Thanks and silence were important parts of the whole experience….
Margaret, thanks for providing the address of your blog. I’m thinking of walking a portion of the Camino and appreciate your insights. I also noticed that you posted Mary Oliver’s entire poem “The Summer Day” on it.
Mary Oliver seems to have a lot to say that could relate to the Camino Linda. The first day just after I had reached the top of the first hill and was striding along a plateau, I was struck with the realisation that I was hopefully going to be walking outdoors for weeks, and I was both excited and thankful- and scared- about that. I guess that ‘outdoors’-ness is so much a part of Mary Oliver’s poetry.
Oh I love that. I have one of those clear desk pads and many things peek out at me from underneath it… including this poem. Beautiful. Thank you!
I think this is beautiful. Simple and enough said.
m.
Wow! What a beautiful way to explain the simplicity of prayer. No big words needed – just talk.
Thanks for finding this and sharing it now.
Well said Mary Oliver. It’s strange that such a gifted wordsmith should come up with this. On certain days a sequence of grunts is all I manage!
One of the things I struggle with is coming up with an impromptu prayer, Mary’s right, it is not a contest…
Happy Wednseday
Mary Oliver has such a gift. For me the key in this poem is “just pay attention”. As I read the whole poem, I scrolled down the page and read “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver and really appreciate these words:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
Lots of food for thought.
Yipes! What a beautiful lesson in using few words to say great things! Thanks, Paul.
This answers my question from yesterday!!
Emma Angel de la Cruz
It’s true, you’re not a poet, but rather, *you* are the thing signified by the poem. Not the composer, but, the song.
Every life is a song. How is that life heard?? Could be dissonant, could be gesamtkunstwerk, or anyplace in between…….
How Beautiful! Thank you for sharing this.
Many times I just sit or stand or kneel and have so much to say and have nothing to say it with. Then I go away wondering if I had “prayed” at all. Maybe I had.