no longer young, and still not half-perfect

[primroseburrows]

This was the poem used for the Opening Words at church today. I really love it, especially the wonderful way the minister recited it as an intro to the Water Communion (which next year I will definitely have water for, oh, yes I will).


Messenger
Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

"learning to be astonished" is now officially a tag, and a LJ interest. :D :D

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