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The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver

From New and Selected Poems, 1992
Beacon Press, Boston, MA
Copyright 1992 by Mary Oliver.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press from New and Selected Poems. Copyright 1992 by Mary Oliver. For further permissions information, contact Beacon Press, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108-2892.

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. She published several poetry collections, including Dog Songs: Poems (Penguin Books, 2015).

Dharma & Talents

In a world where everyone settles, it is remarkable to follow your passion and create a life of freedom. It takes courage to do something that everyone else isn’t doing, because taking accountability of your own life makes you the architect of your future self.
Be willing to risk everything for the fire in your soul, always choose freedom over so suffocating system.
Sometimes things may get rough but always believe in yourself, there’s a higher purpose that’s unfolding itself through you.
Be patient keep giving energy towards the vision of your highest self until it has no choice but to manifest.
You’ve got this.

SOURCE UNKNOWN