Sunday 28 September 2014

Day 801: Seasonal Adjustment

 '...how the vivacity of what was is married/to the vitality of what will be...'

Some people love the approaching season, some people loathe it. If you find it hard to adjust to the seasonal change, the following poem from Mary Oliver is a balm for the transition. As she says - what else to do but accept the season 'if the love one claims to have for the world/be true.' Exactly.


Lines Written in The Days of Growing Darkness - Mary Oliver

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends

into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?
I don't say
it's easy, but
what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?

So let us go on, cheerfully enough,
this and every crisping day,

though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.

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