When Photography and Poetry Mingle
Poetry by Mary Oliver + Photography + Snow = Love.
Okay, not the real kind, but it is a type of joy that causes me to look upwards and thank God for the little things in life.
When snow fell ever so lightly a couple weeks ago I grabbed my camera and headed outdoors to savor my favorite weather event.
Without a doubt, Mary Oliver is my favorite contemporary poet. Her love of nature is evident in most everything she writes. The fluidity of her words smooths even the most ruffled of feathers.
First Snow
The snow
began here
this morning and all day
continued, its white
rhetoric everywhere
calling us back to why, how,
whence such beauty and what
the meaning; such
an oracular fever! flowing
past windows, an energy it seemed
would never ebb, never settle
less than lovely! and only now,
deep into night,
it has finally ended.
The silence
is immense,
and the heavens still hold
a million candles, nowhere
the familiar things:
stars, the moon,
the darkness we expect
and nightly turn from. Trees
glitter like castles
of ribbons, the broad fields
smolder with light, a passing
creek bed lies
heaped with shining hills;
and though the questions
that have assailed us all day
remain — not a single
answer has been found –
walking out now
into the silence and the light
under the trees,
and through the fields,
feels like one.
–Mary Oliver ©
Wouldn’t you agree that it’s often the simple things in life that brings us tidbits of joy throughout our days? What’s one simple thing you’re thankful for today?