Mary Oliver
From one of my very favourite authors. I think this is appropriate for today’s different world.
“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 not 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 or power in the world.
It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.Don’t Hesitate!”
And a quote from a poet new to me –
“The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.”
Ann Sexton, American Pullitzer Prize winning poet
1928-1974.
Take great care. Be safe, be kind and remember, this too will pass.
A la prochaine 0r until the next time
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 
Judith, I love this photo. Just beautiful! 🙂
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“Don’t hesitate to give into joy”
Mary Oliver seems to be a poet well worth knowing! 🙂
I just published this video that I found on YouTube:
https://auntyuta.com/2020/03/28/mary-oliver-reads-the-summer-day/
Mary Oliver asks: “Who made the World?”
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Hi Uta. I trust you and Peter are both well. I have responded on your blog and suggested another of her readings for you. However, then I found this. Mary Oliver reading her own poems – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsr3ZZzH-MA
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Perfect! Thanks. Here is one from my favorite poets, Maya Angelou
Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan
Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
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Thats very apt today. Thanks. So many poems that fit well into our troubled world at present.
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J > Well, well, what a coincidence. Joy is not a concept that fits in well with contemporary secular values. And yet the book I’m reading now, ‘The Moth Snowstorm’, by Michael McCarthy, is about just that. It’s a great book : excellently written, with something new and profoundly important to say. Thanks to the book, I now understand that it is Joy that I have experienced when about my work, on our croft or in the walled garden, or just walking, or sitting and watching the clouds and listening to the birds.
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Wow! I haven’t heard of that author, but am always open and on the lookout for new ones. Thanks,. And Joy while it doesn’t fit into our secular thinking and values I am coming to believe it is everywhere – it was there yesterday just walking around our suburb in the sunshine. People smiling as we passed. Yes, certainly joy is wherever we look for it.
BTW have you read C S Lewis’ Surprised by Joy. I have just. finished rereading it.
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