One of 10,000 Reasons Why I Love the Poetry of Mary Oliver

Because I was talking yogic philosophy with a student the other day, fleshing out the notion that the world is as we see it. And then I happened upon this M.O. poem. With apologies to lovers of the Upanishads, I have to say, I think Ms. Oliver says it better!!!

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Look Again

Mary Oliver

What you have never noticed about the toad, probably,

is that his tongue is attached not to the back of his mouth but

the front--how far it extends

when the fly hesitates on a near-enough leaf! Or that

his front feet, which are sometimes padded, hold three nimble

digits--had anyone

a piano small enough I think the toad could learn

to play something, a little Mozart maybe, inside

the cool cellar of the sandy hill--and if

the eyes bulge they have gold rims,

and if the smile is wide it never fails,

and the warts, the delicate uplifts of dust-colored skin, are

neither random nor suggestive of dolor, but rather are

little streams of jewelry, in patterns pf espousal and pleasure,

running up and down their crooked backs, sweet and alive in the sun.

(published in Why I Wake Early, 2004)

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