But first and foremost, I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple — or a green field — a place to enter, and in which to feel. Only in a secon… - Mary Oliver

I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple — or a green field — a place to enter, and in which to feel.

The poem was made not just to exist, but to speak — to be company. It was everything that was needed, when everything was needed.

Come with me into the woods where spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.

So every day
I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth
of the ideas of God,
one of which was you.

Today I'm flying low and I'm not saying a word. I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep. The world goes on as it must, the bees in the garden rumbling a little, the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten. And so forth. But I'm taking the day off. Quiet as a feather. I hardly move though really I'm traveling a terrific distance. Stillness. One of the doors into the temple.