Mary Oliver on The Balance of a Healthy Life and How to Maximize Your Life – The Marginalian

Few are those whose contribution to humanity – be it art, or music, or literature, or other magic – fills the heart with eternal gratitude for their existence. Mary Oliver (September 10, 1935–January 17, 2019) – one of the greatest poets, and perhaps the greatest of our time – is one such blessing of a writer. He, the holy helper of compassionate attention, has made the supreme art of giving witness to our world – be it in his beautiful poetry, or in the prose of that moving memorial of his soulmate, or in his ways with the art of poetry itself.

In his latest line which is very rewarding In life interview with Krista Tippett — triple magic because Oliver rarely gives interviews, and he never speaks in this way and reveals himself — he read a few of his favorite poems. While “Wild Geese” remains a favorite, I was especially taken with the four-part poem titled “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac,” found in Oliver's stunning 2014 collection. Green Horses: Poems (public library). It is partly his recent victory over cancer, and partly the score in the great tango of life and death, which we are all, consciously or not, called upon to dance every day.

Like much of his work, it's a straightforward but deceptively unusual love letter, coming from the soul of a man completely haunted by the world we're invited to touch.

THE FOURTH SIGN OF THE ZODIAC (PART 3)

I know, you were not meant to be on this earth.
But you are in everything the same.

So why not start immediately.

I mean, it's yours.
There is so much to admire, to cry about.

And write music or poetry about.

Bless the feet that take you here and there.
Bless the eyes and ears that listen.
Bless the tongue, wonder of taste.
Bless the touch.

You can live a hundred years, it has happened.
Or not.
I speak from the platform of luck
many years,
none of these, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a manufacturer?
Do you need a little darkness to travel?
Let me rush like a knife then,
and I remind you of Keats,
one of purpose and thought, temporarily,
and he had all his life.

Fill the wonderful beyond measure Green Horses and Oliver on what attention really means and what dogs teach us about the meaning of our lives as humans, and behave yourself to the fullest In life chat below and be sure to sign up for Tippett's always empowering world giveaway.

Things take time. Don't worry.

How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?