"In Blackwater Woods" By Mary Oliver

This track is a reading of Mary Oliver's poem "In Blackwater Woods". This poem invites listeners to reflect on the impermanence of life and to be reminded that what matters above all else is love and to let go when it is time to let go. Listeners are invited to integrate this short, but sweet recording as part of their meditation or mindfulness practice.

Transcript

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.

Reviews

Touching...🙏🏾🌲💚

Love Mary Oliver and this reading .ty! 🙏 yes ..three most powerful words ~let it go 💜