Lightly Child, Lightly.

Posted on by Live & Learn

Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe

their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them —

…But what in this world
is perfect?

I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided —
and that one wears an orange blight —
and this one is a glossy cheek

half nibbled away —
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled —
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing —
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

— Mary Oliver, from “The Ponds” in “House of Light” (Beacon Press, April 8, 1992)

Notes:

  • Photo: Orange Lily, DK, June 2020
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

20 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly.”

  3. I was surprised to read that, this was written by our Mary Oliver…perhaps, I need to read more of her… these words, speak to me…

    “Still, what I want in my life
    is to be willing
    to be dazzled —
    to cast aside the weight of facts

    and maybe even
    to float a little
    above this difficult world.
    I want to believe I am looking”…

    PS: Yes, up early, been up since 2:00 am, not feeling the best & totally exhausted…

  9. And that is the magic inherent in Mary Oliver’s poems – finding the line or lines that speak to the heart. To be dazzled and surprised and float..yes, indeed.

Leave a Reply