some friends recently gave me the gift of thirst - a new collection of poems from american poet, mary oliver. though grieving the loss of her partner of over forty years, oliver's tone in this volume is rarely elegiac. instead, the texture and tone of these poems express what the title suggests: yearning. for god; for molly; for a feeling of homeliness in a familiar home, changed utterly; for a sense of her place in her natural landscape, as she tramps through snowy woods in winter. this is one of my favourites...The Beautiful, Striped Sparrow
In the afternoons,
in the almost empty fields,
I hum the hymns
I used to sing
in church.
They could not tame me,
so they would not keep me,
alas,
and how that feels,
the weight of it,
I will not tell
any of you,
not ever.
Still, as they promised,
God, once he is in your heart,
is everywhere -
so even here
among the weeds
and the brisk trees.
How long does it take
to hum a hymn? Strolling
one or two acres
of the sweetness
of the world,
not counting
a lapse, now and again,
of sheer emptiness.
Once a deer
stood quietly at my side.
And sometimes the wind
has touched my cheek
like a spirit.
Am I lonely?
The beautiful, striped sparrow,
serenely, on the tallest weed in his kingdom,
also sings without words.
