Friday, June 26, 2009

Today's poem - Peonies by Mary Oliver


Peonies
by Mary Oliver from New and Selected Poems


This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open ---
pools of lace,
white and pink ---
and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away

to their dark, underground cities ---
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again ---
beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

3 comments:

  1. Oh, how I love this poem. I think Mary Oliver is quickly becoming my favorite poet!

    I only have white peonies in this garden of mine, but I plan to put in a couple of pink and red this fall. Or whenever I can plant them. Guess I better read up on that!

    Lovely header, by the way.:)

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  2. Gorgeous peony photos to go with this wonderful poem. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

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  3. Thanks for coming by and reading this wonderful poem, Mary Lois, Les, and Lisa (all those Ls!) I just love her work so much. And thanks about the pictures, too. My peonies are a little later this year probably due to the cool, cloudy spring. I have a big pink one, and a smaller white one right together. Peonies are like both daylilies and iris in that they are beautiful before, during, and after blossoming. The leaves are just great. I love them.

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