Ode To Mary Oliver Poem by Santosh Bakaya

Six years back on January 17,2019
you left this world. Age eighty-three.
Unshackled. Free

But, I often wonder,
did you miss your favorite geese?
Did your favorite geese miss you?
Did you recall how you drank the sun,
and the lilies spread across the water,
bowing to each other,
yearning to be ‘close, closer to one another? '

In that higher realm, did you dream of the natural world
you so poignantly observed, stirring you into creativity?
Shorebirds, water snakes, ponds, the harbor sun-filled,
and every bird that melodiously trilled?

To you, ‘it was the emblem of everything'.
Your affinity for solitude, and inner monologues
spurred you on.
At Blackwater Pond, you drank from the pond,
it fell cold into your body, waking your languorous bones,
and you heard them whisper,
"Oh, what is that beautiful thing that just happened? "
"A little thanks from every throat would be appropriate, " You said.
So, we thank you, as you taught us to:

"Put your lips to the world.
And live
your life."