This was taken from my new Subscription to ORION Magazine. It is a wonderful magazine and suggest we all subscribe.
LEAD
BY MARY OLIVER
Here is a story to
break your heart.
Are you willing ?
This Winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died,one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A Friend told
of one,on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the strong,elegant beak
and cried out
in the long,sweet,savoring of its life
which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to
where they still sing.
And,believe me,tell no on
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon---speckled,
iridescent,with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake-
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart-
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again,
to the rest of the world. |
