Mornings are summer’s gift and I rise early and treasure the sights and sounds and the limpid joy of slipping into the day easily and quietly. Already I feel the slow pulse of morning slipping away, pulled inexorably into the rush of day as summer fades and the school year wakens, revving throatily like a giant engine warming up for a long journey.
Recently, I’ve turned to Mary Oliver’s Why I Wake Early, seeking to linger longer in the serenity of slow, easy mornings and the wonders of our world. While excitement and anticipation build at the coming year and the return to school and students, within me there is a quiet pool of fear that stirs–Fear that I will lose or forget to take the time to notice, to cherish, to simply be in the world around me. Mary Oliver’s poems speak to me and this one reminds me to be mindful to open myself to the glory around me and find each day something “that more or less kills me with delight.”
Mindful
By Mary Oliver
Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for—
to look, to listen,…
Click to enjoy the Poetry Friday Roundup at Dori Reads. You’re sure to find wonders there as well.
Nix the comfort zone 
Your words are beautiful: “Mornings are summer’s gift and I rise early and treasure the sights and sounds and the limpid joy of slipping into the day easily and quietly. Already I feel the slow pulse of morning slipping away, …” I must put Mary Oliver’s “Mindful” in my file for “What I noticed.” Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks, Alice and I’m so glad you enjoyed Mary Oliver’s poem. She is simply wonderful, isn’t she?
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You’ve made your intro a prose poem. I love that poem by Mary Oliver.
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True confession–I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a prose poem! However, after I wrote the intro, I did toy with writing it as a poem for a while. I couldn’t quite pull it together so I left it as it was. Thanks for introducing me to the terminology. There’s always something to learn on Poetry Friday!
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Lots of literary magazines publish prose poems. 🙂
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There are good prose poems available, and you just wrote one, too, Molly. I love Robert Bly’s work, & perhaps you will, too. Mary Oliver just gets it right every time. Thanks for sharing this, and those gorgeous pictures.
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Thanks, Linda. I’ll check Robert Bly out. I clearly need to educate myself about prose poems! Glad you like the photos–I love taking them as it reminds me to be mindful.
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We’re definitely on the same page with our posts this week! I love how you described the exit of slow summer mornings and the rev of the school year’s engine. That paragraph needs to be a poem, too!
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Thanks, Mary Lee. Early mornings always feel poetic to me. 🙂
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Mary Oliver always knows exactly what to say, doesn’t she? But Molly, these photographs are amazing!!! The one at the top of the post has killed me with delight many times over already. How talented with a camera you are!
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Thanks, Michelle! What a lovely compliment! I’m so glad you enjoyed the photos as taking them is a joy for me.
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I think you need not be afraid. Mindfulness resides in your watchful soul.
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Thank you–what a lovely thing to say.
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Mary Oliver has the right idea and you do, too, Molly. Lovely. =)
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