Year of 1000 Poems | 05/1000 | Sleeping in the Forest – Mary Oliver

This is from an anthology I’ve had since my college days. It’s been transmogrified into an electronic version I can carry on my iPad, which I love. I’m sure I’ve read this poem, but it’s speaking to me now more directly than it might have back in the day.

Sleeping in the Forest
Mary Oliver

I thought the earth
remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *