Dec 31, 2008

Year's End

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.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Gramercy Park in the snow
snow- covered bench in Gramercy Park
Gramercy Park in the snow
footprints in the snow
by Mary Oliver, "When Death Comes" [excerpt]

Nov 17, 2008

Autumn in New York

Near the end of autumn, the end of Scorpio, the end of the year - what better time for a new venture?


One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,

. . . .

as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do -
determined to save
the only life that you could save.

Madison Square Park, clock on Met Life Tower
Madison Square Park's nearby Met Life Tower clock
Gramercy Park, autumn leaves
Autumn leaves in Gramercy Park

The Journey by Mary Oliver
(excerpt)