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Religion

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mia

(8,455 posts)
Thu Jan 17, 2019, 09:21 PM Jan 2019

Who made the world? [View all]


Who made the world?
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/577380646/beloved-poet-mary-oliver-who-believed-poetry-mustn-t-be-fancy-dies-at-83

Beloved Poet Mary Oliver, Who Believed Poetry 'Mustn't Be Fancy,' Dies At 83

She wrote about one such walk in her poem "The Summer Day":

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Many of Oliver's poems are a joyful celebration of nature, but she also wrote about the abuse she suffered as a child and her first brush with death from lung cancer. Ruth Franklin says her work is infused with a deep spirituality. "The way she writes these poems that feel like prayers, she channels the voice of somebody who it seems might possibly have access to God. I think her work does give a sense of someone who is in tune with the deepest mysteries of the universe."

In her poem "When Death Comes," Oliver wrote this about the inevitable: "When it's over, I want to say all my life/ I was a bride married to amazement."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=_WNZUeRzBCE
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Who made the world? [View all] mia Jan 2019 OP
I wonder if that video was inspired by Lana Del Rey, or vice-versa True Dough Jan 2019 #1
Maybe so. mia Jan 2019 #4
I love this poem so much. violetpastille Jan 2019 #2
I love you for sharing love. mia Jan 2019 #3
💓 sprinkleeninow Jan 2019 #5
She'll be missed. akraven Jan 2019 #6
Taiowa - the Spider Woman alittlelark Jan 2019 #7
The god of dirt. Voltaire2 Jan 2019 #8
Who made Naegleria fowleri? trotsky Jan 2019 #9
Free will. Act_of_Reparation Jan 2019 #10
Ahem. I believe you forgot some of that proper argument. It goes like this: trotsky Jan 2019 #11
You can certainly ask, but the Abrahamic religions give a bad answer marylandblue Jan 2019 #12
Poems are neat. trotsky Jan 2019 #13
But this OP is a poem. Why raise that question here? marylandblue Jan 2019 #14
See post #9. trotsky Jan 2019 #15
Ah yes, the asking questions statement. guillaumeb Jan 2019 #16
I get to ask questions. trotsky Jan 2019 #22
Sorry, I don't mean to sound judgy. I just like the poem. marylandblue Jan 2019 #18
I disagree. guillaumeb Jan 2019 #19
Of course many theists think that, the myth of Good vs. Evil requires it marylandblue Jan 2019 #20
How are deadly parasites a "bad choice"? trotsky Jan 2019 #23
For the record, I'm not talking about the poem. trotsky Jan 2019 #21
Well I am definitely not trying to stop you from asking questions marylandblue Jan 2019 #24
We know that. guillaumeb Jan 2019 #27
At least guillaumeb thinks you're doing a great job. trotsky Jan 2019 #28
Recommended. guillaumeb Jan 2019 #17
Who made the one who made the universe that made the world? NeoGreen Jan 2019 #25
Lovely poem. Thank you, I was not familiar with Mary Oliver. The read left a wonderful vibration. c-rational Jan 2019 #26
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