The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

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 the 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?

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Credits

Spartacus Media Enterprises is a social mission media company committed to incubating new projects and ventures as well as facilitating a link between investors and the media industry. "Investing in Media that Matters -- A Gathering at Sundance was executive produced by Spartacus. >>

Photographs & concept: Tony Deifell >>
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