Retreat into her pages

This week has felt off, overwhelming.  To much going on, and dealing with unseen circumstances that have left me feeling stressed and empty.  Whenever I feel this way, I tend to retreat into the pages of Mary Oliver poems.  Last night I filled the bath up extra hot and took her in there with me.  Her words speak to all the places in my soul, and I always feel myself breathe easier and I feel more grounded after spending sometime with them.  I thought I would share one of my favorites with you. 

Photo taken by me on our road trip last summer

Sleeping in the Forest

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.