The Summer Day (Poem By Mary Oliver)

This is a very calm, gentle poem by Mary Oliver. With open questions and simple images from nature it invites you to stroll through the fields, to be idle and blessed, to pay attention, to float away.

Transcript

Who made the world?

Who made the swan and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper,

I mean.

The one who has flung herself out of the grass.

The one who is eating sugar out of my hand.

Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down?

Who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes?

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention,

How to fall down into the grass,

How to kneel down in the grass,

How to be idle and blessed,

How to stroll through fields,

Which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me,

What else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last and too soon?

Tell me,

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Reviews

Read so beautifully. Gave me a feeling of calm. I adore anything Mary Oliver

Thank you for the beauty of your voice.

Lovely. 🦜🦗

Thank you🙏 .Great poem! Her poems can change people’s lives... Especially when people read them every day🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️⭐️⭐️⭐️

♥️🙏🌻

Love this, thank you 🪷

Love the poem, love your reading of it. Thank you.

Beautiful poem . Thank you

Thank you for sharing this beautiful Mary Oliver poem. 🙏

Thank you 🙏

Beautiful 🤩