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ORION
by Mary Oliver

I love Orion, his fiery body, his ten stars,
his flaring points of reference, his shining dogs.

“It is winter,” he says.
“We must eat,” he says. Our gloomy

and passionate teacher.


                                    Miles below

in the cold woods, with the mouse and the owl, 

with the clearness of water sheeted and hidden,

with the reason for the wind forever a secret,

he descends and sits with me, his voice

like the snapping of bones.


                                    Behind him

everything is so black and unclassical; behind him
I don’t know anything, not even

my own mind.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Oliver (born September 10, 1935) is an American poet who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times described her as “far and away, [America’s] best-selling poet”. (Read more at wikipedia.org.)

PAINTING: “Orion at Cinder Hills Overlook” by Jeremy Perez, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  Learn more about this painting at perezmedia.com.