Passing Lights

Photo by ali elliott on Unsplash | Kispiox Valley, BC, Canada

So many human sources of light and inspiration left the earth in the last year.  Mary Oliver was one such passing light for me.

One of the first adventures my partner and I shared together was rising at 2 o’clock on a warm August morning and driving to Provincetown, arriving in time for sunrise. We spent the day exploring beaches, as we anticipated an evening poetry reading by Mary Oliver at St Mary of the Harbor Church. The poet blessed us with a collection of old and new poems.  Her words washed over us as cleansing as the salty tide.

In recognition of Mary Oliver’s reunion with Source, I offer one of her poems – a favorite of mine – and one she graced us with that evening.

I Found A Dead Fox

I found a dead fox
beside the gravel road,
curled inside the big
iron wheel

of an old tractor
that had been standing,
for years,
in the vines at the edge

of the road.
I don't know
what happened to it –
when it came there

or why it lay down
for good, settling
it's narrow chin
on the rusted rim

of the iron wheel
to look out
over the fields,
and that way died –

but I know
this: it's posture –
of looking,
to the last possible moment, 

back into the world –
made me want
to sing something
joyous and tender

about foxes.
But what happened is this –
when I began,
when I crawled in 

through that honeysuckle
and lay down,
curling my long spine
inside that cold wheel, 

and touched the dead fox,
and looked out
into the wide fields,
the fox

vanished.
There was only myself
and the world,
and it was I

who was leaving.
And what could I sing
then?
Oh, beautiful world!

I just lay there
and looked at it.
And then it grew dark.
That day was done with.

And then the stars step forth
and held up their appointed fires –
those hot, hard
watchmen of the night.

~ Mary Oliver

Blessings on the journey at this Full Moon eclipse. May the passing lights in all our lives shine on, bright and beautiful, in our hearts.

_________

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