Thursday, May 6, 2010


Sleeping In The Forest

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts,
her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

by Mary Oliver

2 comments:

mo.stoneskin said...

It's a long time since my thoughts were as light as moths. Sure, my thoughts will easily home in on a light source but that's not the point. Nice poem though, moths or no moths.

Cupcake Murphy said...

I love Mary Oliver.