This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I know, that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attention.
Mary OliverYou want to cry aloud for your mistakes. But to tell the truth the world doesn't need any more of that sound.
Mary OliverA dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing.
Mary OliverWhen I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.
Mary OliverAnd it is exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories of that grief, no doubt many of you do also. It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old-or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give.
Mary Oliver