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