I think about that more and more lately as I’ve crossed the 60 marker. It all seems to fly by so fast. When your six or sixteen it seems like it will be forever. Oliver said, “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” I don’t want that to have been me.
When you read Oliver’s poems whether the theme be of the natural world or the inner life she seems to be so aware and attuned to it. “Ten times a day something happens to me like this – some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness…. Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled—to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world.”
So do I.