{"id":1874,"date":"2016-05-11T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1874"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:43","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:43","slug":"may-11-mary-oliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2016\/05\/11\/may-11-mary-oliver\/","title":{"rendered":"May 11 – Mary Oliver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0May 11 \u00a0 \u201cOne day you finally knew \/ what you had to do, and began, \u00a0\/ though the voices around you \/ \u00a0kept shouting \u00a0\/ their bad advice”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Readers often introduce me to poets I\u2019d not met, and sometimes re-introduce an already well-known poet with surprise from that poet\u2019s work. \u00a0That happened this week. \u00a0A soul friend and \u00a0list reader wrote on Monday about Joy Harjo\u2019s birthday and the poem \u201cGrace.\u201d \u00a0S\/he told me about a Mary Oliver poem, new to me, which offered grace during a decision-making moment in her\/his life.<\/p>\n

“In any case, I do love to read Joy’s poems on your blog, as well as Mary Oliver’s. \u00a0I don’t read a great amount of poetry, but I do love both of those poets. And your blog has introduced me to many other amazing poems and poets. \u00a0One day I need to tell you of how my mother sent me a poem when I was on a personal retreat – ‘The Journey’ by Mary Oliver – which helped me greatly in my process\/decision making then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Readers often surprise me with stories about a poem or a poet and stories about insight and decision in the reader\u2019s life. \u00a0Sometimes the stories take me back to September 2013 when this list began during some hard times in the city and on campus. \u00a0The hard times became an intuition that led to this list, c. 350 posts ago.\u00a0 The original wording appears at the top of the archive blog where all previous posts appear. \u00a0I re-read it now and then to remind me of the origins. \u00a0 \u00a0Check it out. \u00a0https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry<\/a><\/p>\n

Best to read Mary Oliver out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

p.s.\u00a0Detroit Mercy\u2019s Commencements are this week \u2014 Law, Dentistry, McNichols campuses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post\u00a0\u201cThe Journey”<\/strong><\/p>\n

One day you finally knew
\nwhat you had to do, and began,
\nthough the voices around you
\nkept shouting
\ntheir bad advice —
\nthough the whole house
\nbegan to tremble
\nand you felt the old tug
\nat your ankles.
\n“Mend my life!”
\neach voice cried.
\nBut you didn’t stop.
\nYou knew what you had to do,
\nthough the wind pried
\nwith its stiff fingers
\nat the very foundations,
\nthough their melancholy
\nwas terrible.
\nIt was already late
\nenough, and a wild night,
\nand the road full of fallen
\nbranches and stones.
\nBut little by little,
\nas you left their voice behind,
\nthe stars began to burn
\nthrough the sheets of clouds,
\nand there was a new voice
\nwhich you slowly
\nrecognized as your own,
\nthat kept you company
\nas you strode deeper and deeper
\ninto the world,
\ndetermined to do
\nthe only thing you could do —
\ndetermined to save
\nthe only life that you could save.<\/p>\n

Mary Oliver<\/p>\n

\"Mary-Oliver\"<\/a><\/p>\n

September 10, 1935<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0May 11 \u00a0 \u201cOne day you finally knew \/ what you had to do, and began, \u00a0\/ though the voices around you \/ \u00a0kept shouting \u00a0\/ their bad advice” Readers often introduce me to poets I\u2019d not met, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3138,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions\/3138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}