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Sunrise

Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry by Mary Oliver
(1935 - ) Timeline

Original Language
English

Secular or Eclectic
Contemporary

You can
die for it--
an idea,
or the world. People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

 

 

-- from New and Selected Poems, by Mary Oliver

Amazon.com

 


/ Photo by M3R /

Themes

  Dawn
  Death
  Fire
  Light
  Mountain


Recommended Books


American Primitive, by Mary Oliver
Blue Iris: Poems and Essays, by Mary Oliver
Blue Pastures, by Mary Oliver
Dream Work, by Mary Oliver
God of Dirt: Mary Oliver and the Other Book of God, by Thomas W. Mann

More >>

 

<<Previous Poem | View More Poems by Mary Oliver | Next Poem >>

 

 


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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2009 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.