What better way to start the New Year then to settle in and read some poems by Mary Oliver! I have begun to appreciate her poetry more deeply as the years go by. She is a chronicler of the human condition, and an acute observer of our relationships with the living creation that surrounds us. Listen to this poem called Messenger from her book Thirst and you will see what I mean:

Messenger

My work here is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird–

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half perfect? Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work.

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since the all the ingredients are here.

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.

Messenger, Mary Oliver, Thirst, p1.

In this New Year may we all find that our work is to love our world!

May it be so!