“Impressions of Mia 1 of 10″
The Ponds by: Mary Oliver
Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe
their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them –
the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch
only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?
I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided –
and that one wears an orange blight –
and this one is a glossy cheek
half nibbled away –
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled –
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing –
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.
3 comments in ““Impressions of Mia 1 of 10″”
March 30th, 2009 at 18:25
Oh, Wow, son! This kind of thing just grips me, you know? And seeing my precious little niece there like that … it’s like … like … the face of Spring. And then my poetic juices start to flow, and I get all choked up as I recall that special poem that your old Pa composed so many years ago … you know the one, right?
Spring has sprung …
The grass is riz.
I wonder where …
The flowers is!
Bawl, sniff … it’s beautiful, Andrew … just beautiful!
April 4th, 2009 at 10:25
look at those eyes… child photographer, that’s where the $ is
April 6th, 2009 at 15:34
Yup, the dream of every parent—a photo of their kid with half of their face missing!
Safe to say I took this photo more to satisfy the artsy geek in me than for Bobby and Spooner.
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