Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

Mary Oliver, from “Mysteries, Yes” in Evidence (via litverve)
Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell; grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning.
Mary Oliver, Thirst. And the river flows…

We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss - we want more and more and then more of it.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I’m gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I’m speechless:
I am living…

–Marie Howe

Today in the River.

via: therainanditshands:
Among the grasses,An unknown flowerBlooming white.―Zen HaikuPainting by Agnes Martin, Gratitude, 2011.

Among the grasses,
An unknown flower
Blooming white.
―Zen Haiku

Painting by Agnes Martin, Gratitude, 2011.

(Source: parabola-magazine)

Inside this pencil
crouch words that have never been written
never been spoken
never been taught

they’re hiding

they’re awake in there
dark in the dark
hearing us
but they won’t come out
not for love not for time not for fire

even when the dark has worn away
they’ll still be there
hiding in the air
multitudes in days to come may walk through them
breathe them
be none the wiser

what script can it be
that they won’t unroll
in what language
would I recognize it
would I be able to follow it

to make out the real names
of everything

maybe there aren’t
many
it could be that there’s only one word
and it’s all we need
it’s here in this pencil

every pencil in the world
is like this

–W. S. Merwin

With gratitude to Whiskey River.

Please think about this as you go on. Breathe on the world.
Hold out your hands to it. When morning and evenings
roll along, watch how they open and close, how they
invite you to the long party that your life is.
William Stafford, from “A Valley Like This” from Even in Quiet Places (with thanks to A Poet Reflects

(via litverve)

Among the grasses,
An unknown flower
Blooming white.
Zen Haiku

Squander it all!
Hold nothing back.

The heart’s a deep well.

And when it’s empty,
It will fill again.

Gregory Orrfrom How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009)

Thank you, apoetreflects.