Mary Oliver, a well known poet, was born in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio in 1935.  She started writing poetry at the age of 14 and her first collection of poems was published when she was 28.

Her poem, When Death Comes contains a stanza that is particularly compelling.  It goes like this

What a lovely metaphor for a present and breathtaking approach to life.  May we all take the opportunity to astonish ourselves each day.  Slow down, turn your phone off, take a deep breath, and open your eyes to take in all the wonders of the world.  When was the last time you sat quietly and listened to your own heart beating and said, “thank you”?  You might want to start there.

Mary Oliver’s When Death Comes can be enjoyed below.

When Death Comes
Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox:

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity,
wondering what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say:
all my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.