Saturday, April 23, 2011

Percy (2002-2009)


This - I said to Percy when I had left our bed and gone out onto the living room couch where he found me apparently doing nothing – this is called thinking. It’s something people do, not being entirely children of the earth, like a dog or a tree or a flower. His eyes questioned such an activity…Actually I like kissing better.


A Year's Rising with Mary Oliver's Poems 
January 1, 2010 - April 23, 2011

Oh Mary and readers, we are at our last poem together and it is one where I resist her words.  This happens so rarely.  For I feel that people are entirely children of this earth. Our thinking is as the sap rising in the tree and a dog drooling.  Maybe if I had the gift of genius of words that Mary had, I too would feel a separation from life around me.  For how can words capture the kiss of the morning sun upon one’s face and the caress of the wind or a feathered wing?

I suppose they can’t, but they do remind us where the path is.

So I thank you Mary for this time together, for keeping me on the path to see beauty, tragedy, interconnection - reality - in all moments.

And now I think I will lay down my pen, and go and kiss the ground and hug a tree  - my future and always daily nature meditation.


What might you share with others here about your experience of Mary’s poems and our shared reflections?

What is your daily nature meditation?

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The Missing Poems - Mary Oliver



Notice:  These poems I was only able to twitter my reflections.  For all the other poems, search by poem, key word, or in chronological order.


In April/May 2010 I was working in Guatemala and Honduras.  This was the time when I was finishing up Mary's "New and Selected Poems" (going from the oldest poems in the back to the newest ones in the front of the book).  Being in Central America I did not have reliable access to the internet, so I twittered brief words from each of Mary's poems, and then a brief reflection on my part.  If you were not following me on Twitter, you would have missed this part.  I was immersed in avian conservation, so to get the context of my experiences during that time, go to the blog:  www.liberatingwings.typepad.com.

These tweets are listed in reverse chronological order with May 18, 2010 appearing first and April 9, 2010 last.

LoraKim

1.      MO-In this world I am as rich as I need to be.The ocean givith and the ocean taketh away-the ultimate gift exchange.Wed May 19 2010 06:12:40 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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2.      Mary Oliver-5/18/2010.Winter.And the waves gush pearls from their snowy throats and the sea still streaming like a mother wild with gifts-Wed May 19 2010 06:12:08 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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3.      MO-or have you gone crazy for power, for things?Power and things stream from the sun-our choice how the sun fills us and how we empty.Wed May 19 2010 06:11:04 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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4.      Mary Oliver-5/17/2010.The Sun.Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful than the way the sun floats towards the horizon,Wed May 19 2010 06:10:02 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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5.      MO-What is the sound of one hand clapping?Fox jaws clamping down with love.Wed May 19 2010 06:09:06 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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6.      Mary Oliver-5/16/2010.The Snowshoe Hare.The fox is so quiet-he moves like red rain.There is nothing you can hear but the cold creek movingWed May 19 2010 06:08:39 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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7.      MO-Let us swim wildly for that white door, terror behind us, terror before us.Look!Have you ever seen such beauty?Sat May 15 2010 08:35:14 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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8.      Mary Oliver-5/15/10. The Egret.They are gone,having tasted sheer terror.Look!Look!What is this dark death that opens like a white door?Sat May 15 2010 08:32:20 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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9.      MO-The snake, a machete to cut our long legs or a snake's tongue to bathe us in acceptance. Which do you choose?Fri May 14 2010 09:53:16 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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10. Mary Oliver-5/14/2010.Water Snake. I saw him in a dry place and I stopped on the path to give him room.He went past me, loathing me.Fri May 14 2010 09:52:44 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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11. MO-What more is there than gratitude in response to kindness, food, rest, sun, quiet? To wonder!Fri May 14 2010 09:51:52 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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12. MO-bowing down to her.I stand in the cold kitchen, everything wonderful around me.Fri May 14 2010 09:51:22 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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13. Mary Oliver-5/13/2010. Morning.The cat laps the bowl clean and then wants to go out in the world. I stand in the cold kitchen...Fri May 14 2010 09:50:57 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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14. MO-Roses at the end buries deep the surface bitterness.Tue May 11 2010 19:02:17 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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15. Mary Oliver-5/12/2010.A Bitterness.Oh,cold and dreamless under the wild, amoral, reckless, peaceful flowers of the hillsides.Tue May 11 2010 19:02:00 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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16. MO-I was shaggy, and beautiful,like the rose.Was, is, Will be.Roses and garbage until the end.Tue May 11 2010 19:01:21 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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17. Mary Oliver-5/11/2010.A Certain Sharpness in the Morning Air.I stand there thinking of the old, wild life of the fields, when as I rememberTue May 11 2010 19:00:37 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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18. MO-is a kind of holiness.What can you do about it-deep blue night? Happiness, holiness, wholeness. Loss lights the way.Sun May 09 2010 19:00:53 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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19. Mary Oliver-5/10/2010.Poppies.Loss is the great lesson, but light is an invitation to happiness, and happiness, when it's done right..Sun May 09 2010 19:00:13 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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20. Mary Oliver-Rice.The blessing of every meal is that we grasp the mud of our inconstency, not wallowing but following our hearts.Sun May 09 2010 11:14:25 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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21. MO-How can we keep from singing even as earth eclipses into our final days.For we are here to love the world.How hard can that be?Way.Sat May 08 2010 19:01:55 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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22. MO-in the swaying branches in the silver baskets and love the world.Is it necessary to say more?Have you ever been so happy in your life?Sat May 08 2010 19:01:00 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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23. Mary Oliver-5/8/2010.Goldfinches.In the fields we let them have,in the fields we don't want ye,every year the hatchlings wakeSat May 08 2010 19:00:26 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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24. MO-We are unimportant rustlings with our needs giving our lives over to the hawk of hard love.Sat May 08 2010 18:59:12 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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25. Mary Oliver-5/7/2010.Hawk.This morning the hawk rose up, heaven's fistful of death and destruction.It turned into a white blade, which fell.Sat May 08 2010 18:58:30 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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26. MO-saw the world as if for the second time, the way it really is.Hands full of flowers greeting death with joy. Go gators!Thu May 06 2010 08:41:29 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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27. Mary Oliver - 5/6/2010.Alligator Poem. I almost died of foolishness in beautiful Florida.But I didn't.I rose from the ground andThu May 06 2010 08:38:58 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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28. MO-I am willing to be one, for I need not one more truck break down in the wild dark forest to be won.Thu May 06 2010 08:36:08 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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29. Mary Oliver 5/5/2010. Whelks.Now and again there's a moment when the heart cries aloud:yes I am willing to be that wild darkness.Thu May 06 2010 08:35:43 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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30. MO-Death does not separate us, but joins, binds us, lifts us up and grounds us.Oh the sweet liberation of fish, wings, oil spills.Tue May 04 2010 09:17:00 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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31. Mary Oliver-5/4/2010. Gannets.Death is an imposter.I would still see it rise from the water inseparable from the gannets' wings.Tue May 04 2010 09:16:07 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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32. MO-Resurrection hope arises upon every death. Grass, wings, love.Mon May 03 2010 09:34:34 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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33. MO-the terrible cleansing has begun.Mon May 03 2010 09:34:00 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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34. Mary Oliver-5/3/2010.Field Near Linden, Alabama.For hours they float in the distance-so I know, somewhere in the world..Mon May 03 2010 09:33:37 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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35. Mary Oliver-5/2/2010.Marengo.Out of the sump rise the marigolds.When I have to die, I would like to die on a day of rain.Anyone who comes..Sun May 02 2010 09:12:59 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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36. MO-What is it I might say as death rises up? What can we say of death's perfection?No tears,no blame, o fears hoots in our hurts and hearts.Sun May 02 2010 09:11:42 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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37. Mary Oliver 5/1/2010.This Morning Again It Was In the Dusty Pines.Not in shyness but in disgust the owl turns its face from me.Sun May 02 2010 09:09:49 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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38. MO-dying, falling, rising. If God is a verb, then so are we.Fri Apr 30 2010 09:00:47 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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39. MO...they are nothing?To love this world, the macaw, the marsh lily, the sunset is to love one's self, wild and perfect.Growing, changing,Fri Apr 30 2010 09:00:12 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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40. Mary Oliver-4/30/2010. Peonies.Do you love this world?Do you also hurry (like the Peonies) to be wild and perfect for a moment, beforeFri Apr 30 2010 08:59:22 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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41. What if falling was as important as rising in our culture?Would our collective 3rd eye envisioned peace at last?Thu Apr 29 2010 23:23:18 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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42. MO-some rough peace int he deep and green and utterly motionless pools after falling.Thu Apr 29 2010 23:22:06 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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43. Mary Oliver4/29/2010.The Waterfall.I could not see the waterfall until I came and saw the water falling.Maybe there will be after all..Thu Apr 29 2010 23:21:36 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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44. MO-Bend by golly in stiff resistance, and let the winds of change give you away.Thu Apr 29 2010 23:19:16 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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45. Mary Oliver 4/27/2010.Goldenrod.All day they bend as though it was natural and godly to bend,they rise in..the pure peace of givingThu Apr 29 2010 23:16:41 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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46. Today's questions from the field:Do I really want to know what 40 C is in Fahrenheit, and what kind of insect caused my skin to do THAT!?Thu Apr 29 2010 11:31:02 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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47. MO-All day we go round,eyes blurred with tears, wandering, asking where are you my beauty?Here in death comes love's answer.Tue Apr 27 2010 09:01:04 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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48. Mary Oliver-4/27/2010.Her Grave.A dog lives 15 years if you're lucky.How beautiful is her unshakable sleep..love break over us.Tue Apr 27 2010 09:00:15 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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49. Off to camp in field to monitor far reaching macaw nests.Oh bumpy road, how your long hours bring me stillness within as bodies lurch.Tue Apr 27 2010 08:58:49 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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50. Didn't climb any trees yesterday.Observed wild chicks from the ground in real time from cameras in nests fed by solar panels.Beautiful!Tue Apr 27 2010 08:57:27 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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51. MO-Beautiful girl, where are you? I am here, you are here, we are here, no one is here.Such an amazing disappearing act!Mon Apr 26 2010 09:02:27 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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52. Mary Oliver-4/26/2010. Picking Blueberries,Austerlitz, New York 1957.Once in summer..I fell asleep and woke when a deer stumbled against me.Mon Apr 26 2010 09:01:47 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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53. Spent the day yesterday in Flores Guatemala, writing, walking, doing photography, and swimming with the Peteneros in their wondrous lake.Mon Apr 26 2010 09:00:14 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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54. MO-the only answer there is, "I do."Sun Apr 25 2010 12:23:21 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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55. The sun doesn't wait for deliberations, her morning invitation sent upon still waters lingers not beyond the moment waiting forSun Apr 25 2010 12:23:01 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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56. MO..taking the world into my arms. I don't want to end up simply having visited this worldSun Apr 25 2010 12:21:25 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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57. Mary Oliver-4/25/2010.When Death Comes.When death comes I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.I was the bridegroom..Sun Apr 25 2010 12:10:26 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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58. MO-In our imaginations we are the blue gods that can set us free.Who needs Avitar when we have butterflys?Sat Apr 24 2010 18:23:59 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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59. Mary Oliver-4/24/2010.Spring Azures.In spring the blue azures bow down at the edges of shallow puddles.Turned away to a life of imagination.Sat Apr 24 2010 18:23:27 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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60. MO-May I today shed purpose and relax my grip on saving/savoring, & let my heart bleed through, now, changing, growing me/snake/bird/world.Fri Apr 23 2010 09:28:10 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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61. Mary Oliver-4/23/2010.Rain.Where life has no purpose, and is neither civil nor intelligent..The snake begins to bleed through like satin.Fri Apr 23 2010 09:26:34 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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62. Worked with confiscated parrots yesterday.Death comes to this birds, leaving crying humans in the wake of our culture that sells lives.Fri Apr 23 2010 09:25:14 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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63. MO-Death is a snowy owl,coming to earth,holding us in love,binding us one to another,our beings rising together upon liberating wings.Thu Apr 22 2010 09:10:10 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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64. Mary Oliver-4/22/2010.White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field.Maybe death isn't darkness after all,but so much light wrapping itself ar'ndThu Apr 22 2010 09:08:54 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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65. I wrote a story with pictures about the people and parrots of La Mosquitia Honduras-www.liberatingwings.typepad.com.Thu Apr 22 2010 09:06:44 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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66. Up this rainy morning with nothing planned for sure except to visit some sick confiscated parrots.People ask, why is the rain so early?Thu Apr 22 2010 08:53:20 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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67. MO-If we demand of each other to speak our melancholy madness, would everyone be saved?May I be mad with love to all I talk to today.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:37:35 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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68. Mary Oliver-4/21/2010.Maybe.Sweet Jesus, talking his melancholy madness..Everyone was saved that night.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:36:01 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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69. MO-Would we open to each other's sweetness if we quit asking, what next for me?Perhaps the birds and our hearts would sing a while longer.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:35:05 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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70. MO-Roses.What happens to the leaves..to the singing birds when they can't sing any longer?Fear has not yet occurred to them, nor ambition.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:33:16 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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71. Mary Oliver-4/20/2010.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:31:18 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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72. Today I go back to the zoo and then work with another group of sick chicks.What can we do here to support the loss of these birds? Love?Wed Apr 21 2010 08:30:18 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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73. Most parrots die that the police turn over to rescue centers. Each year thousands of parrot chicks will never fly free, let alone live.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:26:57 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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74. Taught at Tegucigalpa zoo yesterday about what to do and how to treat their confiscated parrots.They are hungry for information and support.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:25:09 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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75. MO-to pray, grateful that we knew what ours, the parrots, the trees, the communities wild and precious lives were for.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:07:43 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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76. MO-For 5 days touring with biologists in Honduras we paid attention to everything we could.In the evening we went down to the river Rus RusMon Apr 19 2010 20:07:12 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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77. Mary Oliver-4/19/2010.The Summer Day.Who made the world?Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?Mon Apr 19 2010 20:06:36 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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78. MO-All allow more light to shine.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:05:52 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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79. MO...that the live is everything.Each parrot nest we climb appears imperfect:malnourished chicks,poached chicks,vacant nests,felled trees.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:05:38 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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80. Mary Oliver-4/18/2010.The Ponds.Every year the lilies are so perfect.I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing-Mon Apr 19 2010 20:04:53 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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81. MO - Scars of men and broken trees feed our desires-holding love and parrots captive.How can we keep from singing?Mon Apr 19 2010 20:04:13 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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82. Mary Oliver-4/17/2010.Nature.All night in and out of slippery shadows the owl hunted, the beads of blood scarcely dry...Mon Apr 19 2010 20:03:43 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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83. MO - and so dear sorrow are you.Sorrow is as sorrow does,our hearts breaking open to the fertile richness of old life and new death.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:02:58 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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84. Mary Oliver-4/16/2010.The Lilies Break Open Over the Dark Water...They are simply doing ..what they are impelled to do...Mon Apr 19 2010 20:02:23 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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85. MO-with each flap we bring light to the shadows below.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:01:04 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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86. MO-On the eve of 5 days in La Mosquitia, Honduras there flowers in me a wish for freedom, for all of us so that we fly free and...Mon Apr 19 2010 20:00:49 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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87. Mary Oliver-4/14/2010. The Kookaburras.in every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator.In every heart there is a god of flowers..Mon Apr 19 2010 19:59:35 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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88. MO-When we touch something real we lose ourselves in a message of love.Every day, every moment is Valentine's Day.Mon Apr 19 2010 19:58:55 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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89. Mary Oliver - 4/14/2010.Little Owl Who Lives in the Orchard.His beak could open a bottle...it's not size but surge that tells us.Mon Apr 19 2010 19:57:37 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web
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90. Sanity of safety vs holding the world in your arms.which do you choose?10:28 AM Apr 13th via txt
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91.  5 a.m. In the pinewoods-mary oliver.this is a poem about the world that is ours,or could be.10:23 AM Apr 13th via txt


Some Herons - April 12 in Regular Blog
Indonesia - April 11 in Regular Blog
The Swan - April 10 in Regular Blog

Lilies – April 9, 2010

Twittering With Mary Oliver

 

In a few days I will be traveling around Central America with marginal capacity to connect to the internet. My hope is to use a mobile phone to tweet into this blog to keep in touch as I continue to read daily one Mary Oliver poem and reflect upon it. I will only be taking one book with me as I dive into La Moskitia area in Honduras, and it will be Mary's poems. If the reception is there, check into this blog and look down to the right and below to see the text messages that come through from twitter. I tried to do this today as an example for the poem - Lilies. I don't actually leave the country until Monday, so let me know if you have any feedback on how this works for you on the comment section below.

Lily loving liberal bleeding heart and proud of it,

LoraKim

:  
§  What do you do when you get lonely? about 14 hours ago
§  If I were a lily to be eaten by a cow, tell me, would I know any more how, to bow before the winds and wings of loneliness? about 14 hours ago
§  Lilies-mary oliver.iI have been thinking about living like the lilies that blow in the field. about 14 hours ago

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