Mary Oliver: On Meditating, Sort Of

Photo by Molly

On Meditating, Sort Of

Meditation, so I've heard, is best accomplished

if you entertain a certain strict posture.

Frankly, I prefer just to lounge under a tree.

So why would I think I could ever be successful?

Some days I fall asleep, or land in that

even better place — half asleep — where the world,

spring, summer, autumn, winter —

flies through my mind in its

hardy ascent and its uncompromising descent.

So I just lie like that, while distance and time

reveal their true attitudes: they never

heard of me, and never will, or ever need to.

Of course I wake up finally

thinking, how wonderful to be who I am,

made out of earth and water,

my own thoughts, my own fingerprints —

all that glorious, temporary stuff.

— Mary Oliver

From Devotions: Selected Poems

of Mary Oliver