Friday, December 11, 2009

Poetry Friday: White-Eyes

It's not winter yet, but it feels like it. (23 degrees outside!) Time to be warmed by Mary Oliver's words...


White-Eyes
by Mary Oliver

In winter
    all the singing is in
         the tops of the trees
              where the wind-bird

with its white eyes
    shoves and pushes
         among the branches.
              Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,
    but he's restless—
         he has an idea,
              and slowly it unfolds


The rest is here.

Poetry Friday is hosted today at Random Noodling 

9 comments:

  1. Oh, wow, that is a beautiful poem--that last stanza. Wow.

    Thanks for sharing this one, Sara.

    Gisele

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  2. Ah. Contented sigh. So beautiful. Do you know which collection of hers it comes from, by chance?

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  3. Lovely choice. It called to mind for me images of totems and artwork for the Thunderbird. Not at the start, where it was a smaller, greyer bird that came to mind, but later.

    Thanks for posting it on this cold, windy day.

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  4. What a lovely image of the wind. The wind that rocks the tree outside my window, and frightens my children, and makes me think of ice. Really it's a great bird that loves us to sleep... dropping downy feathers. Sweet.

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  5. Perfect day for that poem (it's 20 degrees here).

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  6. The coldness here in the NW makes it a perfect fit. Thank you. I love Mary Oliver.

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  7. Jules, the permissions link at Poetry 180 says it comes from POETRY magazine. I don't know if it appears in collection.

    What I love is how slowly this poem unfolds, and how blessed I feel at the end of it.

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  8. Hi, it's a very great blog.
    I could tell how much efforts you've taken on it.
    Keep doing!

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  9. It is published in her collection which I think is called "Why I Wake" or something close to that.

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