Mary Oliver: What Is There Beyond Knowing?

What Is There Beyond Knowing?

 

What is there beyond knowing that keeps
calling to me?  I can't

 

turn in any direction
but it's there.  I don't mean

 

the leaves' grip and shine or even the thrush's
silk song, but the far-off

 

fires, for example,
of the stars, heaven's slowly turning

 

theater of light, or the wind
playful with its breath;

 

or time that's always rushing forward,
or standing still

 

in the same -- what shall I say --
moment.

 

What I know
I could put into a pack

 

as if it were bread and cheese, and carry it
on one shoulder,

 

important and honorable, but so small!
While everything else continues, unexplained

 

and unexplainable.  How wonderful it is
to follow a thought quietly

 

to its logical end.
I have done this a few times.

 

But mostly I just stand in the dark field,
in the middle of the world, breathing

 

in and out.  Life so far doesn't have any other name
but breath and light, wind and rain.

 

If there's a temple, I haven't found it yet.
I simply go on drifting, in the heaven of the grass
and the weeds.

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(New and Selected Poems Volume Two)

 

 

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