-
Night and the River
- Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2003
- pp. 248-249
- 10.1353/scs.2003.0036
- Article
- Additional Information
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Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 3.2 (2003) 248-249
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Night and the River
Mary Oliver
I have seen the great feet
leaping
into the riverand I have seen moonlight
milky
along the long muzzleand I have seen the body
of something
scaled and wonderfulslumped in the sudden fire of its mouth,
and I could not tell
which fit memore comfortably, the power,
or the powerlessness;
neither would have meentirely; I was divided,
consumed,
by sympathy,pity, admiration.
After a while
it was done,the fish had vanished, the bear
lumped away
to the green shoreand into the trees. And then there was only
this story.
It followed me homeand entered my house—
a difficult guest
with a single tune. [End Page 248]which it hums all day, and again all night.
Slowly or briskly,
it doesn't matter,it sounds like a river leaping and falling;
it sounds like a body
falling apart.
Mary Oliver holds the Catherine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College. She is the author of ten books of poetry, and the recepient of the National Book Award, the Christopher Award, the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.
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