A Year's Risings with Mary Oliver

Percy (2002-2009)

2011-04-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

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?

The Missing Poems - Mary Oliver

2011-04-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14. MO-Roses at the end buries deep the surface bitterness.Tue May 11 2010 19:02:17 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

32. MO-Resurrection hope arises upon every death. Grass, wings, love.Mon May 03 2010 09:34:34 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

33. MO-the terrible cleansing has begun.Mon May 03 2010 09:34:00 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

54. MO-the only answer there is, "I do."Sun Apr 25 2010 12:23:21 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

71. Mary Oliver-4/20/2010.Wed Apr 21 2010 08:31:18 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

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

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

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

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

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

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

78. MO-All allow more light to shine.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:05:52 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

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

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

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

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

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

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

85. MO-with each flap we bring light to the shadows below.Mon Apr 19 2010 20:01:04 (Eastern Daylight Time) via web

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

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

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

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

90. Sanity of safety vs holding the world in your arms.which do you choose?10:28 AM Apr 13th via txt

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

2011-04-22T16:18:00.001-07:00

The Poet is Told to Fill Up More Pages

But, where are the words?

Not in my pocket….

So I sit, harassed, with my notebook….

Nothing happens.

So this is all I can give you,

Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.

Make of it what you will.

I have been writing this blog now for 15.5 months and I have only one more page upon which to reflect. At least this day, I sit a bit frustrated as to what to write. The words before have always come easy, a gift to reflect with Mary and with you on the beauty of this world and the human spirit. Perhaps it is because I am on a 5.5 hour flight from Guyana to JFK airport. The ride is bumpy, and I don’t mean the plane – I mean our lives struggling to live always in love with beauty. How many times can I write this same thing over and over...

We are all interconnected in beauty, and let our response be love..

I guess I will write this as long as I must.

So make of this blog what you will, and all the words yet to come. In me, and in you.

Do you ever experience “writers block?” “Parent block?” “working block?” “loving block?

Whispered Poem

2011-04-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

I have been risky in my endeavors,

I have been steadfast in my loves;

Oh Lord, consider these when you judge me.

Let’s play Mary mix and match.

Have you been risky in your loves?

Steadfast in your endeavors?

In what have you been particularly risky or steadfast? Would love be one of them?

For myself I do not know how developing love in life could be anything but risky. The trick, for me, is to be steadfast and beholden always to love, no matter the pain.

If you were to be judged by how well you love, how would your fare?

More Evidence - Part 1

2011-04-22T02:55:00.000-07:00

The grosbeak sings with a completely cherishable roughness..

With what words can I convince you of the casualness with which the white swans fly..

Do you give a thought now and again to the essential sparrow, the necessary toad?

Just as truly as the earth is ours, we belong to it. The tissue of our minds is made of it, and the soles of our feet, as fully as the tiger’s claw, the branch of the whitebark pine, the voices of the bird, the dog-tooth violet and the tooth of the dog….

This morning I took a hike with our ectourist group in Guyana up to some caves with bats. Along the way we walked through a forest teaming with thousands of species biting, singing, crawling, hooting, growing, and photosynthesizing. I love the tropical forest and after days and days in one, I begin to know I belong, as do all beings. However, I am guessing that for you, like me, there are certain special places in your life that more clearly and strongly say, “You belong.” For me it is swimming in natural body of water.

After this hike I mentioned I jumped off a bank of a forest river into clear cool water. With fish swimming all around me, I circled round to see a Pygmy Kingfisher perched on a branch and below him, my species washing their clothes. Clothes, fur, feathers no matter how roughly or finely we are clad, we are the skin of the earth emerging from the mixing of mud with water.

Belonging is the first step, and a hard one to be sure. I believe there is more struggles before us all - knowing we are necessary, and also not.

Where do you gain your greatest sense of belonging?

More Evidence - Part 2

2011-04-22T02:54:00.000-07:00

Where are you when you’re not thinking?

Frightening, isn’t it?

Where are you when you’re not feeling anything?

Oh, worse!

Except for faith and imagination, nature is that hard fortress you can’t get out of.

Some person are captive to love, other would make the beloved a captive. Which one are you?

As we travel through Guyana, conversations frequently turn to experiencing birds in the wild that in our home countries are kept in cages, often with harm, suffering, and death as a consequence. There is no doubt that humans love their birds, but in so doing, they make the beloved a captive. What would it look like if instead we were bound by love instead of being the binders?

Perhaps I would not even be here to hear the sound of the White Bell Bird. I would not be using the earth’s resources to travel so far to behold beauty and to save it. Instead I would be at home with a simple bell calling me to meditation, to awakening, and to liberation. I would be swooning with every sunrise that lights the grandeur of the tall pines in the oak hammock. Yet it is the beloved birds that bind me and bring me to these places in Latin America to be with them, and perhaps contribute if I can. I am ever captive, and the captor.

We go through our days, with cages around us and the door open.

We can step out into freedom, or we can lure others in with us.

Which will you do this day?

More Evidence - Part 3

2011-04-22T02:52:00.000-07:00

It is salvation if one can step forth from the clutter of one’s mind into that open space-that almost holy space-called work.

Emerson: how the elegance of his language can make me weep over my own inadequacy…

Do you hear the rustle and outcry on the page?

Do you hear it’s longing?...

Let laugher come to you now and again, that sturdy friend.

The impulse to leap off the cliff, when the body falsely imagines it might fly, may be restrained by reason, also by modesty. Of the two possibilities, take your choice, and live.

Refuse all cooperation with the heart’s death.

Sing, if you can sing, and if not still be musical inside yourself.

Yesterday I visited Kaieteur Falls in central Guyana. Here is the tallest single drop falls in the world. While there we saw a pair of Red and Green Macaws circle through the rising mist of the falls, their calls echoing down the canyons and down deep in our souls.

At the head of the falls are immense cliffs, to which we were invited to crawl onto our stomachs and peer over. In between dizzy spells, I watched the White-collared Swifts approach the falls and then in twos and threes dive straight down the vertical wall of water, twittering amongst themselves as they left us behind on the cliffs. I would not be exaggerating to say that we experienced an impulse to follow them, and perhaps we did. Somehow watching them and the macaws it was as if we ourselves were flying as they, the rainbow rulers and aerobatic champions of the falls.

Let us choose not to be restrained by either modesty or reason, but jump over the edge of perceived separateness so that we may put to death our egos so our hearts may yet live and our spirits at last soar.

What might you choose to day so that your heart may live and your spirit soar?

Trying to Be Thoughtful in the First Brights of Dawn

2011-04-21T04:48:00.001-07:00

I am thinking, or trying to think, about all the

Imponderables for which we have

No answers, yet endless interest all the

Range of our lives, and it’s

Good for the head not doubt to undertake such

Meditations….

Excuse me now, please; it’s morning, heavenly bright,

And my irrepressible heart begs me to hurry on

Into the next exquisite moment.

I am trying to be thoughtful here too this morning, this afternoon, this dusk. But what would happen if I, or if you, were to simply let go of the lists, the thoughts, the judgments, the work to get things done. What is the worse that could happen?

The work would stop and the forests would come back? The fish would jump once again in the ocean? The children would croon with delight of so many grandparents.

I have no idea if my focus in this life is of any merit compared to the pair of Scarlet Macaws that flew below me this morning.

So I guess that perhaps there is nothing but the heart to follow in the moment – and God help us have the courage to travel the path where this leads us.

What exquisite moments do you hope to encounter today?

Four Sonnets - Part 4

2011-04-20T05:10:00.001-07:00

This morning what I am thinking of is circles:

The sun, the earth, the moon;

The life of each of us that begins then returns

To our home, the circular world,

Even as in our cleverness we have invented

Invention – the straight line…

This morning what I am thinking about is circles

And the straight lines that rule us

While earth abides in all sorts of splendors,

Knowing its limitations. The light

Of every morning curls forth,

Oh beautifully, then circles toward the dark.

Obama works, prays, then grabs his scrim of sleep.

For five days I have seen every sunrise, and every sunset. Round each day goes and I don’t know what day of the week it is. Roundness, wholeness, belonging suffuses the air. The rivers upon which we travel, the Rupununi and the Rewa, resist the straight and narrow of human culture as they curve around the hidden splendors of the forests, macaws, toucans, orchids, and Amerindian children. Yet, I cannot keep my mind from work, from thought, from inventing some kind of project to keep this beauty safe. I write here for this blog, I keep a bird species list, I journal. What if I were to just breathe? Would I find the rhythm of these 500 year old trees around me?

What happens if you were to just breathe with those you love and admire?

Four Sonnets - Part 3

2011-04-19T05:17:00.001-07:00

The authors of history are among us still.

And believe me they believe what they believe

As sincerely as the millions who are simply looking for a life, a purpose.

Who are the good people? We are all good people

Except when we are not. Meanwhile the forests are felled..

Who despises us and for what reason? Whom do we

Despise and for what reason?....

“What’s on your mind” we say to each other.

As though it’s some kind of weight.

I’m in a forest that we speak of in the day as being in danger of felling. As night falls it is too close to nightmares to bring into conscious thought. If we do, our enemies might stalk us in the dark and keep our dreams of a beloved community from forming. It’s hard to say who the enemy is – the oil companies that will come in to drill, and build roads and communities around them? The government in Georgetown, Guyana that sold the mining rights out from underneath the Amerinians? Or we consumers with our electricity eating gadgets and cars?

This despising is a weight – I see it in the conservationists around me and I feel it in my heart. If I could have the yellow breast of the macaw, perhaps I would be too delighted with myself and my kind to look at anything or anyone but in awe.

Whom do you despise and why?

Four Sonnets - Part 2

2011-04-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

The kingfisher hurrahs from a branch above the river.

Under it’s feet is a fish that will swim no more,

That has its story, for another time perhaps.

Now it is the bird’s, pounding the fish then hulking it down its open beak…

Thought does not create the soul, not entirely, but it plays its part.

Meanwhile the bird is flashy body and the fish was flashy body and each

Fulfills what it is, remember little and imagines less.

And thus the day passes into darkness undamaged.

The fish, slippery and delicious,

The kingfisher, so quick, so blue.

Out on the river last night there were two kinds of fishers; the birds of which the blue racous Ringed Kingfisher streaks by and then the Amazona Kingfisher, green as emerald. Both loop in and out of and then over the water to low lying branches. Out on the water are also two of boat guides throwing lures into the bow lake of the Rupununi River, again and again, until at last they come up with two Peacock Bass which will be cooked in an outdoor kitchen for our dinner tonight.

Who am I to say that either fisher is wrong or not beautiful, though damage to flesh and rivers comes as does the darkness.

Swinging in the hammock under the sparking stars, a stomach content with delicious bass, I wonder how to live with nature, rightly, graciously, abundantly. If I had feathers, would these long nights be any easier?

What parts of your humanity do you cherish?

Four Sonnets - Part 1

2011-04-16T04:55:00.000-07:00

1. There appeared a darkly sparkling thin hardly bigger than a pin, that all afternoon seemed to want my company, It did me no hurt but wandered my shirt, my sleeve cuff, my wrist…

Oh, distant relative, we will never speak to each other a single kind word. And yet, in this world, it is no small thing to sparkle.

I am in Guyana and there are millions of things here I know not the name of – insects that bite and hum and chirp and whistle. Along our walks today I hear a constant toning of a mediation bell, and it is a bee I am told. Even if it is a large bee, it remains such a small thing to invoke the trees to bend in the wind as eaves in a chapel. Out there with them I pray that I am aware that all beings sparkle.

What small things are with you in your life?

In the Darkness

2011-04-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

At night the stars throw down their postcards of light.

Who are they that love me so much?...

I am grateful and faithful to this other romance

Though we will not ever know each other’s names, we will not ever

Touch.

I am reading John Donahue’s book, “Beauty – The Invisible Embrace.” In the beginning pages he writes that if we can see beauty, we will feel like we belong on this planet and will be welcomed home with open arms. He writes in prose as Mary does in poetry.

We are touched by beauty. Perhaps not as lovers in the night, or as friends on a walk, or children at bed time, but our soul is in contact with the All at times when wonder, awe, and splendor enter our days. We are caressed, we are embraced, we are held.

At such times our faith is affirmed and feelings of gratitude emerge.

How now can we open our eyes to see beauty more consistently, so that justice and peace may grow from our faith and gratitude?

Don't Hesitate

2011-04-14T07:16:00.001-07:00

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are no wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches of power in the world. It could be anything, but very like you notice it in the instant when love begins…..

In my younger years I had a period where I was not proud of my behavior. Though love was behind my actions, the strategies I picked to respond to the love had consequences for others. A few days ago, after nearly 16 years I spoke with someone that had been negatively (and positively – ain’t that the way of things) impacted by me. I was surprised to find her voice on the phone. After a few minutes I jumped right into expressing my regrets about my behavior in those days. She told me, “It has been forgotten.”

Such a rich gift! Such a joy! Not because I had been forgiven, but because I had a chance to redeem a time when my wisdom was not very apparent by speaking of harm.

Still I wonder, if we give into joy, may harm arise? Is there any way to minimize the harm, or avoid it?

Maybe not.

So my plan, dear Mary, is yes perhaps to let joy rule the day when it surprises me, but to communicate this with others and with my deeper wisdom so that we together come up with a plan where kindness and peace have a chance.

When have you give into joy with delight, or regret?

Lark Ascending - Back from Guyana

2011-04-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

I am now back from Guyana, and this my first morning, spent some time looking at the pictures that do no real justice to the beauty there. Two in particular are my favorites - Kaieteur Falls and a pair of Red and Green Macaws flying in front of the falls. They are rising in the cloudy mists of the thunderous water. As so frequently, such a coincidence that Mary's poem is of birds rising to the clouds. So I include those pictures here for you. The rest of the poems that will finish out this 15.5 months of Mary's poems, were all written while in Guyana.

Lark Ascending

galloped up into the morning air

then floated

a long way

whispering, I imagine,

to the same mystery

I try to speak to

down here. ...

if I could

carry a message of thanks

to the doors of the clouds.

I don't know whether it would be

of the or the mind. I know

it's the poem I have yet to make

There are so many ways to give thanks - poets do so with their words, birds perhaps in their own way with their songs, and children with their giggling runs. Writing, singing, laughing - these are but just three ways to live the day in gratitude. I imagine there are thousands of ways. Here are some of mine:

Looking up at the stars and smiling

Bowing to the trees

Kissing the ground

Hugging a person

Identifying a bird species

Biking instead of driving the car

Writing this blog

What are some of your ways of giving thanks?

Going to Guyana - Blog on Hold for Two Weeks

2011-03-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

: Eco-lodge where we will stay (built by donations from Foster Parrots)

The day has finally arrived. Tomorrow I head north to New York to catch a flight to Guyana, where as the guest of Foster Parrots Project Guyana I will see what beauty I may, in the hopes that I will find ways to keep beauty ever present in Guyana in the form of the people, parrots, and the other species there.

In so many ways, this will be a unique trip. One, as I wrote last week, they are home to the Hoaztin, a bird I have always wanted to see. Marc Johnson of Foster Parrots read of my desire, and has so arranged that we will stop at a place where they work with these birds in the wild. Another special attribute of Guyana is that they are only one of two countries in Central and South America that speak English. (and the other one is...........). Furthermore, they still allow legal trapping, harvesting, and exportation of their flora and fauna. From 1900-2002 about 175,000 parrots were exported, and 2003 quotas allow for over 20,000 to be exported a year (this does not include in-country trade for birds that never leave the country).

While there I will also be conducting an ethno-ornithology survey where I will conduct interviews that seeks understanding about the relationship between humans and birds in a given country and a given people. For this aim, I am going to win the biggest luggage award because of all the video and camera gear. I'm already practicing my usual reply when people stare at my big blue duffle luggage, "It's all gear, not shoes!"

Along the way there will be only one opportunity for internet access so I don't know if I will be able to blog until I arrive back in the USA on April 13th. There won't be any phone service either so I can't tweet either. However, one of our companions is packing a gizmo (Spot Satellite GPS) that allows you to track where we are in Guyana on Facebook. You can begin tracking now by clicking here.

With beauty before me and all around,

LoraKim

I Worried

2011-03-29T03:16:00.001-07:00

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers

flow in the right direct, will the earth turn

as it was taught, and if not, how shall

I correct it?

Was I right or wrong...

Will I ever be able to sing...

Is my eyesight fading....

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing

And give it up. And took my old body

and went out into the morning,

and sang.

I imagine that all over the world, minds awake with worry, often long before the sun rises and long before enough rest has been gained. Just this morning I was up in the wee hours, thinking of final arrangements for my trip to Guyana.

What I wonder is that beyond worrying there exist greater possibilites of what we could do with this day, and all our days. First off - learn a new song and a new dance step. Second, go outside and try to outcompete even the melodious thrasher who waltzes over the ground. Third, repeat as necessary and as often as possible throughout day.

Let us join together and vow to drop one "worry" off our list, and replace it with praise.

How many days have you spent worrying about something, and have missed the chance for greater possibility?

I Own a House

2011-03-28T15:49:00.001-07:00

I own a house, a small but comfortable. In it is a bed, a desk, a kitchen, a closet, a telephone. And so forth you know how it is: things collect.

…there is the mockingbird; over and over he rises from this thorn-tree and dances-he actually dances, in the air. And there are days I wish I owned nothing, like the grass.

Okay, time for true confessions. I own a house too, well mostly. When we signed the papers to purchase the house, my heart felt an ache, a heavy burden. I did not want to own things. Yet also I heard the mind saying with its middle-class ways, “Be prudent, be safe, be careful – buying a home will give you a place to live, will guard your finances, and offer security in the future.”

It’s now been nearly 4 years, and things continue to collect in our home.

Things also collect in terms of gear for my wildlife and conservation work. I leave for Guyana in 2 days and I have so looked forward to only taking 25 pounds of luggage, the suggested limit for the small planes and boats upon which we will travel. With all the cameras and binoculars I am coming closer to 50 pounds.

I wonder, do I really need all this stuff to watch birds dance in the forests of South America? Then the mind comes in and says, “Take the gear so as to keep the birds safe, and offer security that they and their kind will be there for the future.”

It’s a dance to be sure, this owning, not owning.

How do you dance to this melody?