POST-THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS
BY DAN MILLER
(Originally posted November 25, 2005)
For me, Thanksgiving in Tennessee this year was the way Thanksgivings should be.
Crisp, perfect weather.... a healthy family.... and a peaceful community.
In light of all the disasters the world has seen since the previous Thanksgiving, it was a good day for reflection.
I tried to take it all in....
seasoned with a sense of sadness for the people who -- for whatever reasons -- cannot, or don't know how to, appreciate life's ordinary little gifts.
I was listening to WPLN as I drove to my sister-in-law's house to join other family members for lunch.
The host of the program was interviewing a poet, who was attempting to define poetry.
(You know some people feel if it doesn't rhyme, it ain't poetry).
But this poet -- whose name I didn't catch -- was explaining, far more eloquently and clearly than I could ever do, what poetry is all about.
She said.... (and this is a very rough paraphrase).... poetry attempts to put into words the feelings and fullness of life's little thoughts and moments.... even when those thoughts and moments are beyond expression.
For me, Mary Oliver is a poet who often accomplishes that.
Here's an example.
A poem written (and copyrighted) by Mary Oliver, titled "WILD GEESE":
WILD GEESE
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
MARY OLIVER
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