She took the world into her arms.

In the poem “When Death Comes,” Mary Oliver wrote:

When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

Today death came to Mary. May God have mercy and grant her rest! Her love and thankfulness for life and the world watered my own heart through the few poems by her I have known.

For me, it’s a blessedly rainy day, and I am re-posting in memory of her a poem about rain, and much more.

Lingering in Happiness

After rain after many days without rain,
It stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees,
and the dampness there, married now to gravity,
falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground

where it will disappear — but not, of course, vanish
except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share,
and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss;
a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole’s tunnel;

and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years,
will feel themselves being touched.

–Mary Oliver

7 thoughts on “She took the world into her arms.”

Her poetry is so lovely with its imagery of the created world and the relationship we have with it, and with God.

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When I came home from work tonight and sat down to check the headlines of the day, her death was the first thing I saw. I did the only reasonable thing, and ordered two of her books that I don’t already have. She was a treasure.

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I have enjoyed her poetry too. This is a lovely tribute.

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When Death Comes is one of my favourite Mary Oliver poems. I’ve found that her poems encourage me to be more mindful, something I have to work at every day.

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Dear Gretchen, the local paper had a lovely article today about Mary Oliver, Memory Eternal. It was written by Margalit Fox of the New York Times. God bless you, dear. I am glad that you had a good day with the fence. Love, Christie

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