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While I Am Writing a Poem to Celebrate Summer, the Meadowlark Begins to Sing
- Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2003
- pp. 250-251
- 10.1353/scs.2003.0037
- Article
- Additional Information
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Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 3.2 (2003) 250-251
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While I Am Writing a Poem to Celebrate Summer, the Meadowlark Begins to Sing
Mary Oliver
Sixty-seven years, oh Lord, to look at the clouds,
the trees in deep, moist summer,daisies and morning glories
opening every morningtheir small, ecstatic faces—
Or maybe I should just sayhow I wish I had a voice
like the meadowlark's,sweet, clear, and reliably
slurring all day longfrom the fencepost, or the long grass
where it livesin a tiny but adequate grass hut
beside the mullein and the everlasting,the faint-pink roses
that have never been improved, but come to budthen open like little soft sighs
under the meadowlark's whistle, its breath-praise,its thrill-song, its anthem, its thanks, its
alleluia. Alleluia, oh Lord.
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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