Why I Wake Early

Posted on by Live & Learn

There are things you can’t reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.
And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier…
I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.

Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
as though with your arms open.

And thinking: maybe something will come, some
shining coil of wind,
or a few leaves from any old tree —
they are all in this too.
And now I will tell you the truth.
Everything in the world
comes.

At least, closer.
And, cordially.

Like the nibbling, tinsel-eyed fish; the unlooping snake.
Like goldfinches, little dolls of gold
fluttering around the corner of the sky

of God, the blue air.

~ Mary Oliver, from “Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?” in  Why I Wake Early

Notes: Poem from Alive 0n All Channels. Photo: okdavid

34 thoughts on “Why I Wake Early”

  3. I wish my eyes and arms were wide open…I wake early because I’m a lousy sleeper. But I do approach the day with wonder (after coffee)

  4. I wake early too – and sleep never enough – and and and….
    This is beautiful and that photo!
    And there was me waiting with baited breath, thinking David K would lift, for once and all, the secret of his very early departures from bed and home….
    Happy Saturday and speedy recovery!

      1. You know, I realized lately that there are words in the English language that I know but never use. ‘Cordially’ is one of them. Today, it has a new meaning. It just wasn’t used beautifully before. 🙂

  9. A bird on an icicle. A lesson for all. 🙂 And I MUST get some Mary Oliver for my hands and eyes and sometimes shivering heart to hold. It’s like secrets have been given to her!

  12. I believed that this poem was from you, David! I guess, it was, actually. Sounds like your healing process. Thank you everyone for asking how our inspirer is doing, and for your replies, David–we all care and want to know!

  13. I have to come back to the ‘cordially’ – I thought I wouldn’t, but I must…. It might amuse you!
    Having a Swiss husband from the French spoken part (to me being from the German spoken larger Swiss part) we often are intruiged by the use of languages. So, when HH discovered that an equally French spoken collegue always ended his English corr with ‘Cordially’ instead the usual ‘kind/unkind/I-couldn’t-care-less regards’, we laughed our heads off and HH even told him several times that he used the French ‘cordialement’ wrongly. As Swiss men can be and often are, STUBBORN, his friend and coworker just wouldn’t change his greeting formula. OK, that was fine with HH – the other guy was being the fool.
    And NOW I see that it is ‘good English’…. ha ha

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