Mary Oliver: The Sun

The Sun

Have you ever seen 
anything 
in your life 
more wonderful

 

than the way the sun, 
every evening, 
relaxed and easy, 
floats toward the horizon

 

and into the clouds or the hills, 
or the rumpled sea, 
and is gone-- 
and how it slides again

 

out of the blackness, 
every morning, 
on the other side of the world, 
like a red flower

 

streaming upward on its heavenly oils, 
say, on a morning in early summer, 
at its perfect imperial distance-- 
and have you ever felt for anything 
such wild love-- 
do you think there is anywhere, in any language, 
a word billowing enough 
for the pleasure

 

that fills you, 
as the sun 
reaches out, 
as it warms you

 

as you stand there, 
empty-handed-- 
or have you too 
turned from this world--

 

or have you too 
gone crazy 
for power, 
for things?

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(New and Selected Poems)

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