joyous song

Walking down blooming sidewalks

in the early morning,

I wondered aloud a little.

 

What do you reckon

that mockingbird's singin' about?

 

The trees didn't answer.

The squirrels paid no attention.

You only smiled a little.

 

And later, I wondered,

if maybe,

that mockingbird had just never

seen bluer skies.

 

One of these days,

we'll have to ask him.

Reviews

[TamiViolet]

Ah is is wonderful to experience a sort of euphoria from life itself....admiring its beauty and splendor... I so enjoy the double connotations derived from your work...
I'm listening, Emily...and I do believe I hear it.... so spectacular...as always...

[Norma M Sutton]

Interesting. Mockingbirds are one of my favorite birds :)

[Miss Fox]

I adore mockingbirds, and I adore this poem. The simple blissfulness one experiences in the warm sunlight and stunning beauty of nature is incredibly captured in this poem.

[zig]

you told me that there was a poem in those mocking birds you couldnt get out of your head... and poof, here it is. great flow, great sense of "being" in this poem. i will have to bookmark this one, enjoyed it very much.

zig

[arbitrary jane]

dont you love her? mary oliver. she's amazing.

as is this. the noticing. the being attentive. the wondering.
the last stanza, though, (a humble editorial) i think it's not the right one.

[Robin]

love this

[paul]

wow. i don't know how u do these things with words, but i love it.

[Emily B]

someone sent me to Mary Oliver's work . . . wow:

Mockingbirds

This morning
two mockingbirds
in the green field
were spinning and tossing

the white ribbons
of their songs
into the air.
I had nothing

better to do
than listen.
I mean this
seriously.

In Greece,
a long time ago,
an old couple
opened their door

to two strangers
who were,
it soon appeared,
not men at all,

but gods.
It is my favorite story--
how the old couple
had almost nothing to give

but their willingness
to be attentive--
but for this alone
the gods loved them

and blessed them--
when they rose
out of their mortal bodies,
like a million particles of water

from a fountain,
the light
swept into all the corners
of the cottage,

and the old couple,
shaken with understanding,
bowed down--
but still they asked for nothing

but the difficult life
which they had already.
And the gods smiled, as they vanished,
clapping their great wings.

Wherever it was
I was supposed to be
this morning--
whatever it was I said

I would be doing--
I was standing
at the edge of the field--
I was hurrying

through my own soul,
opening its dark doors--
I was leaning out;
I was listening.

Copyright © 1994 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; February 1994; Mockingbirds; Volume 273, No. 2; page 80. Online Source

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

this made me smile today more than anyone will ever know~ each word a morsel for a woman momentsrily open to the world~beautiful~