Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. - Mary Oliver

I feel the terror of idleness,
like a red thirst.
Death isn't just an idea.

If there is life after the earth-life, will you come with me? Even then? Since we’re bound to be something, why not together.

I had a dog
who loved flowers.
Briskly she went
through the fields,

yet paused
for the honeysuckle
or the rose,
her dark head

and her wet nose
touching
the face
of every one

with its petals
of silk,
with its fragrance
rising

into the air
where the bees,
their bodies
heavy with pollen,

hovered — and easily
she adored
every blossom,

not in the serious,
careful way
that we choose
this blossom or that blossom — the way we praise or don’t praise — the way we love
or don’t love — but the way

we long to be — that happy
in the heaven of earth — that wild, that loving.