BE  STILL

Poem for Today - May 14, 2014

TODAY

Today I’m flying low and I’m

not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little,

the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.

And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather.

I hardly move though really I’m traveling

a terrific distance.

Stillness.  One of the doors

into the temple.

© Mary Oliver, page 23,

in A Thousand Mornings.

Painting on top:
The Purification of the Temple,
1479-1481. It's part of  the
St. Wolfgang Alterpiece
by Michael Pacher (c. 1435-1498)
which can be found 
in a monastery at the end of 
Lake Wolfgang in Austria.