Monday, May 6, 2013

Tuesday Poem: The Summer Day by Mary Oliver [a reading]



Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
                                                   Mary Oliver

These two wonderful lines - the  last two lines of Oliver's 'The Summer Day' -  are the perfect preface to a novel I just reviewed today for Radio NZ:  Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook. Which is why it's on my mind.

What better question could there be? In fact, the whole of the poem is a wonderful thing. It's about the art of paying attention - showing 'love', in effect - and thereby transforming both the thing we pay attention to and ourselves. Which is what Isabel Allende believes and is in evidence, in all its glory, in her most recent novel.


2 comments:

Helen McKinlay said...

I really like Mary Oliver's poetry. so pleased you posted this one. And the ending...inspiring especially as the first chill of winter breaks through :-) Thanks for posting this.
Enjoyed your book review too. It fits well with the poem :-)

Anonymous said...

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