Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say โLook!โ and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. (from โMysteries, Yesโ)
Mary OliverI believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.
Mary OliverWherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
Mary OliverAnd I do not want anymore to be useful, to be docile, to lead / children out of the fields into the text / of civility, to teach them that they are (they are not) better than the grass.
Mary OliverThere are things you canโt reach. But You can reach out to them, and all day long. The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of god. And it can keep you busy as anything else, and happier. I look; morning to night I am never done with looking. Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around As though with your arms open.
Mary Oliver