Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Secular or Eclectic Contemporary	About Mary Oliver Timeline (1935 - )
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Original Language English	In Blackwater Woods
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger Themes   Bower   Light   Lover and Beloved   Tree   Water   Recommended Books American Primitive, by Mary Oliver Blue Iris: Poems and Essays, by Mary Oliver Blue Pastures, by Mary Oliver Dream Work, by Mary Oliver God of Dirt: Mary Oliver and the Other Book of God, by Thomas W. Mann More >>	Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment, the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders of the ponds, and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now. Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation, whose meaning none of us will ever know. To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.     -- from American Primitive, by Mary Oliver Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

This is one of my favorite poems by the contemporary American poet, Mary Oliver. It speaks to so many levels of the human experience.

Through nature, she reminds us of transcendence ("Look, the trees / are turning / their own bodies / into pillars // of light") and formless awareness:

and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.

Notice the intentional ambiguity of that final line break above. She could be saying that the ponds are now nameless, or that they are nameless Now, nameless Presence. Contemplating that double meaning can throw the mind into meditation.

She uses a similar line break immediately preceding that: "name is, is". The break forces us unconsciously to think of how no matter what a place (or person) is named, it IS. It's existence is undeniable, not somehow dependent on definitions or categories or names. The line break tricks the mind into contemplating the relationship between being and name.

But the part of the poem that touches me most is the courageous willingness to embrace both connection and loss:

To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.