Poems which give joy

By Kim Sun-ae

"My work is loving the world."

"Messenger," a poem by the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), begins like this. Like those words, Oliver passionately sings of love for the world. Particularly, she conveys a message of love for the natural world through her poetry. Her readers can feel the wonder the poet felt in nature.

In "Messenger," looking at the sunflowers, pastures and a hummingbird, Oliver says that her work is "mostly standing still and learning to be astonished" and "rejoicing." She knew that all the conditions for joy were there.

Oliver's poems are full of the birds, flowers and trees she met walking in the woods. In "When I Am Among the Trees," the poet feels the trees' delight in being alive when she is in the woods every day. She sees the light flow from the trees' branches. The trees say to the poet:

"and you too have come /
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled /
with light, and to shine."

When do you feel you are shining? When are you comfortable with yourself? When are you joyful?

When I sometimes read Oliver's poems aloud, I become tinged with the joy that flows from them. In "The Pinewoods," the poet tells that once, in the woods, a deer walked toward her and touched her hands. Since then, the poet has been "exalted," separated from her old life. She says that she would be "stalled in the happiness of the miracle," strolling out into the fields every morning. Like this, Oliver tells about meetings with nature, the mysterious moments that changed her life.

Oliver also asks what it is to live together, through a story of the birds she saw on the shore. In the poem "In the Storm," the poet sees some ducks on the seashore on a cold, stormy day. Then some sanderlings, smaller than the ducks, fly toward them. The ducks let the sanderlings avoid the strong wind under their tails. It is beautiful that the living beings live together with the smaller living beings, helping them to live.

These days I walk in the woods near my home every morning, and hear the cuckoo's notes in the woods. Among the deep green leaves, the white buds make me wonder what they will look like when they bloom; the soft soil covered with fallen leaves; the red cherries shining in the sunlight.

Probably Oliver also discovered beauty over and over, walking in the woods near her home. With all the beauty, woods make us smile again. There I feel comfortable as I am. From that tree, a flower which fully bloomed falls, returns to the soil and is born again.

During the walks, I sometimes realize the direction in which I need to go in my life. In what life will we be able to feel true, lasting happiness? Oliver's poem "The Summer Day" ends like this:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do /
with your one wild and precious life?"

Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/dancinglf) is a writer and translator.

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