Answers
If I envy anyone it must be
My grandmother in a long ago
Green summer, who hurried
Between kitchen and orchard on small
Uneducated feet, and took easily
All shining fruits into her eager hands.
That summer I hurried too, wakened
To books and music and circling philosophies.
I sat in the kitchen sorting through volumes of answers
That could not solve the mystery of trees.
My grandmother stood among her kettles and ladles.
Smiling, in faulty grammer,
She praised my fortune and urged my lofty career.
So to please her I studied – but I will remember always
How she poured confusion out, how she cooled and labeled
All the wild sauces of the brimming year.
I love this poem by Mary Oliver because it reminds us that we just might find the answers we’re looking for in the simple things we do.
Suellie, i just love that poem! it was exactly what I needed, thank you dear heart!
I have read that poem several times and had the page corner turned down, but for some reason when I read it yesterday, it touched me in a new way – maybe because we were just talking about canning applesauce and I could picture you in your orchard gathering the apples???