isn't this beautiful? I had to analyse it for my midterm.

[timepiececlock]

Mary Oliver
In Blackwater Woods


Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Comments

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

God, it is gorgeous. The line breaks hold the phrases perfectly, separating complete thoughts and making the entire meaning so much more. I love poetry. Of course, I'm sure you know a lot more about it than I do, since you analyzed it.

... you wouldn't happen to have a copy of your analysis, would you? I'd love to read it.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

:) I'll put it up later, with the other poem. I had to analyze two together, of a choice of 4.

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to it. :)