'Just Get Up And Write'

 “People want poetry . . . They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work.  I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.” – Mary Oliver

Born Sept. 10, 1935, (she died last year) Oliver started writing poetry at age 14 and went on to win both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry.   The New York Times described her as "far and away, [America's] best-selling poet.”  Her works often focused on nature, describing the sense of wonder it instilled in her.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Oliver’s,

 

A Dream of Trees

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?

 

 

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