Welcome back to A Poem For Your Thoughts! If you’re looking for some quality poetry to brighten up your day, you’ve come to the right place! Each edition will include two poems, the first being a featured piece written by a famous poet that will be analyzed and interpreted according to my point of view. Of course, everyone’s interpretation is different and valid, and the comment section will be open for any further discussion. The second piece is written by yours truly and will be open to complete interpretation and analysis. Go forth, enjoy, and as you read, remember: “It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

Poem One: Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me,

She took me back so tenderly

Arranging her skirts

Her pockets full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before

A stone on the riverbed,

Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars,

But my thoughts.

And they floated light as moths

Among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

Breathing around me.

The insects and the birds

Who do their work in darkness.

All night I rose and fell,

As if water, grappling with luminous doom.

By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times

Into something better.

Thoughts: Our poet this week, Mary Oliver, reminds us what we will soon be able to experience once again when spring rolls around. The speaker describes a serene night in the forest and the emotions she ties to her connection with nature. Our speaker points out that “[the earth] took [her] back so tenderly” as if to say our connection with nature is always strong, even when we are forced away from it or choose to be separated. Nature is described as a woman “arranging her skirts/ Her pockets full of lichens and seeds,” which allows her to be more relatable and comparable to a loving mother making sure everything is ordered and in its place, no matter the chaotic method she chooses. Oliver captures the true essence of the relationship between man and the natural world in this poem, conveying the fact that we are like “stone[s] on the riverbed,/ Nothing between [us] and the white fire of the stars,/ But [our] thoughts.” The material world provides a false sense of peace, but the natural world is man’s true environment for tranquility and serenity; when we immerse ourselves in the world of our ancestors we integrate our beings into “something better”, and find the true meaning of peace.

Poem Two: Contemplating Beauty by D.C.

If you stare at something long enough, you tend to love its imperfections.

Everything is perfectly aligned into a beauty none could possibly

define.

What part of love should you be able to feel? She asked. All of it, that’s

what.

Even in the night sky you can find the subtle details that God intended to

make.

Perfectly imperfect, just as He pictured in His dreams. The same way he dreamed of you.

-D.C.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of A Poem For Your  Thoughts! Stay tuned next week for more poetry, released on the Uproar every Friday!