I have found myself thinking of summer fields

I have found myself thinking of summer fields. Fields full of flowers— poppies or lupines. Or, here, fields where the roses hook into the dunes, and their increase is manyfold. All summer they are red and pink and white tents of softness and nectar, which wafts and hangs everywhere— a sweetness so palpable and excessive that, before it, I’m struck, I’m taken, I’m conquered; I’m washed into it, as though it was a river, full of dreaming and idleness— I drop to the sand, I can’t move; I am restless no more; I am replete, supine, finished, filled to the last edges with an immobilizing happiness.

~ Mary Oliver, from “Owls” in Upstream: Selected Essays 


Photo: Bart Ceuppens (Belgium) with Poppies (via drxgonfly)

Comments

  1. She is divine! Her words always move me. 👏

    Liked by 2 people

  2. An Tony'M says:

    Magnifique !

    Liked by 2 people

  3. She truly understands the connection we are meant to have with our Mother.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Her words are as redolent as the scent of the flowers..wow, I love her

    Liked by 2 people

  5. roseanne333 says:

    There is a way in which her words bring us right down to our center. Peaceful, gentle. I love her. Thanks for starting our Sunday with this. Happy day, David.

    Liked by 2 people

    • So true Roseanne. She’s amazing… Makes me feel like:

      “She had this way of magnifying one’s simple words and experiences. One would hand her a bit of information as dull as a lump of lead. She would hand it back glittering like diamonds. I always felt on leaving her that I had drunk two glasses of an excellent champagne. She was a life-enhancer. That was one of her own favorite phrases.”

      ~ Harold Nicolson, on Virginia Woolf, featured in Virginia Woolf: A Biography

      or

      “I enunciated. The more I pronounced the words, the more the words lost all of their meaning. Say anything too much, and soon language becomes pummeled nothing. Totally estranging, inadequate, and without substitute. Your tongue may as well be numb.”

      ~ Durga Chew-Bose, from “Heart Museum” in Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays (Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2017)

      Liked by 4 people

  6. immobilizing happiness. yes.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. I love Mary Oliver. Her poetry is magic and pure wisdom. Thank you for sharing David!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Lovely, pal, and spot on, as Oliver always is….

    Liked by 1 person

  9. She does draw me into such a wonderful place. This glimpse of sun, and with warmth around the corner does open up appreciations of the summer to come 💛

    Liked by 1 person

  10. superb writing matched with that photo. loved them both.

    Liked by 1 person

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