One or Two Things

The god of dirt

came up to me so many times and said

so many wise and delectable things, I lay

on the grass listening

to his dog voice

crow voice,

frog voice; now,

he said, and now,

and never once mentioned forever...

 

For years and years I struggled

just to love my life. And then

 

the butterfly

rose, weightless, in the wind.

"Don't love your life

too much," it said,

 

and vanished

into the world.

 

Excerpt from Mary Oliver's One or Two Things