The Sun
Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?
Notes
After traveling from the untamed, mechanical energy of Larkin’s "Solar" to the sun-bleached, modern surrender of Lorde’s Solar Power, Mary Oliver’s "The Sun" brings us to the ultimate point of spiritual stillness. It offers a breathtaking anchor for July's lightness by asking a beautifully simple question, whether we have ever felt anything more magnificent than the daily, generous return of dawn. By urging us to look away from the heavy, cluttered complications of our own making, the poem unburdens the soul, inviting us to throw open our arms and accept the wild, free gift of the world's light. #poetry #maryoliver #sun #summer #july