Enthusiastically, Dawn

This weekend my best friend celebrated her fifty-fifth birthday. Dave, her husband, reached out to my hubby and I to invite us over for a spontaneous pizza party at the new artsy antique shop they are hoping to open soon. It is a cute place which will soon come to beautiful life under her creative vision – with a little help from her hubby and friends, I have no doubt. Meanwhile I scurried out to find the perfect gift…

I wanted to get her something like a novel about someone opening an antique shop, maybe a murder mystery? Or some really good tea. She loves tea, or maybe a fun wine glass, or you know – shopping for a friend is as fun as shopping for yourself. But my friend might be just as happy with a power tool as a poetry book- she’s quite the versatile one, she is!

But it is National Poetry Month. And it just so happens as I came around the aisle of books at my local bookstore there before my eyes on the end display was the best collection of poetry I have ever read. Now it’s important you understand why Mary Oliver is my favorite poet, because…I don’t find many poets to be so wonderfully infused with the essence of beauty quite the way her words are for me. Is all I know is we love what we love. Mary Oliver’s poems are a treasure.

I have read a number of her works, as well as her A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry which I enjoyed with a group of poets at the local library a number of years back. It was probably then when I “met” Mary. The fact that her words were approachable, and simple, yet profound caused me to see all that poetry could be. I came late to the Pulitzer Prize winning author, so it seems to be with much in my life. Even my own writing.

So what does any good friend (who also happens to write a bit of poetry herself) do but grab that book and carry it joyfully to the register at the local bookstore, thinking this is the best gift ever! Of course I think I could have given a power tool, and she would have loved that too, but hey, this is how I roll!

When I got home from the party, I immediatly went in search of my copy of Devotions, that old familiar friend. I opened to all the dog-eared pages and jumped into bed and soon was off sleeping, dreaming of rivers, wild geese, dog songs and blue horses. It is one of my very favorite poetry collections of all time.

I decided to write a spontaneous poem for Mary. However, please note…this was just yesterday, and I am sure it’s not so great, but I hope you like it anyway. Still needs tweaking, but here is where we are for now!

Mary Oliver and Me

Who introduced me to the poet?
I wish I could recall, but no matter
the words breathe life

into my heart, shamelessly expounding
on the beauty and shadow of things,
of the sea mouse, and Lucretius

in the way no explanation is given
to the blue horses about what war is
how no creature escapes the eye, or heart

of the one who dares to ask,
what will you do with
your one wild and precious life?

overhead, the wild geese fly-
and it is a serious thing to be alive
on this fresh morning in the broken world.

What can I tell you about Mary?
I have never met her, but I believe my heart
is fuller for the words she left behind.

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Do you have a favorite poet? Write a poem about them if you dare. We are almost halfway through April, tell me, what will you do with your one wild and wonderful April? Channeling Mary O today!

Keep writing (even if no one else reads your words),

Enthusiastically, Dawn

#nationalpoetrymonth