Mary Oliver
From New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press, 25 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108-2892, ISBN 0 870 6819 5).
When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me,and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measles-pox; when death comes I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: And therefore I look upon everything and I think of each life as a flower, as common and each name a comfortable music in the mouth and each body a lion of courage, and something When it’s over, I want to say: all my life When it is over, I don’t want to wonder I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world. |