The beautiful earth

I woke up this morning thinking about the poet Mary Oliver. I knew just the poem of hers I wanted to find. I looked in a couple of her books on my shelves but to no avail. However, and you must love the internet, I found it and herewith I present it for your enjoyment:

What Was Once the Largest Shopping Center in
Northern Ohio Was Built Where There Had Been
a Pond I Used to Visit Every Summer Afternoon

Loving the earth, seeing what has been done to it,

I grow sharp, I grow cold.

Where will the trilliums go, and the coltsfoot?

Where will the pond lilies go to continue living

their simple, penniless lives, lifting

their faces of gold?

Impossible to believe we need so much

as the world wants us to buy.

I have more clothes, lamps, dishes, paper clips

than I could possibly use before I die.

Oh, I would like to live in an empty house,

with vines for walls, and a carpet of grass.

No planks, no plastic, no fiberglass

.

And I suppose I will.

Old and cold I will lie apart

from all this buying and selling, with only

the beautiful earth in my heart.

--Mary Oliver
2004