Sunrise

Sunrise

 

You can
die for it --
an idea,
or the world. People

 

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

 

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

 

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

 

of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

 

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

 

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

 

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

 

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(New and Selected Poems, Volume I)