Mary Oliver: The Fist

The Fist

 

There are days
when the sun goes down
like a fist,
though of course

 

if you see anything
in the heavens this way
you had better get

 

your eyes checked
or, better still,
your diminished spirit.
The heavens

 

have no fist,
or wouldn't they have been
shaking it
for a thousand years now,

 

and even
longer than that,
at the dull, brutish
ways of mankind -

 

heaven's own
creation?
Instead: such patience!
Such willingness

 

to let us continue!
To hear,
little by little,
the voices -

 

only, so far, in
pockets of the world -
suggesting the possibilities

 

of peace?

 

Keep looking.
Behold, how the fist opens
with invitation.

 

- Mary Oliver