- Who made the world?
- Who made the swan, and the black bear?
- Who made the grasshopper?
- This grasshopper, I mean-
- the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
- the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
- who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
- Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
- Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
- I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
- I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
- into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
- how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
- which is what I have been doing all day.
- Tell me, what else should I have done?
- Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
- Tell me, what is it you plan to do
- with your one wild and precious life?
aug 15 2013 ∞
jan 5 2014 +
jan 5 2014 +