GIFT
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
-Czesław Miłosz
Berkeley, 1971

A wonderful poem. I remember a lecture by Miłosz being promoted when I was in school at Berkeley, but I didn’t attend. My loss.
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A wonderful poem and perfect image for it!
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What a marvelous poem. One of my favorite collections of poetry, A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry, was compiled by Milosz.
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That title with Milosz as compiler — the combination immediately convinces me to find the book!
Thank you, Deb!
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Good poem. It sounds like my day except I didn’t have Hummingbirds stopping over.
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I have never seen a hummingbird, but I know the happiness:)
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We had some hummingbirds here! That lovely painting could be a woman. I thought it was before reading tha caption, just because of the color of the shirt.
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