The Uses of Astonishment

Mary E. Rossow, Heron White Orchid

Have you ever seen

anything

in your life

more wonderful

than the way the sun,

every evening,

relaxed and easy,

floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,

or the rumpled sea,

and is gone-

and slides again

out of blackness,

every morning,

on the other side of the world,

like a red flower,

— Mary Oliver

*

pay attention to whatever is

under you

because that’s your contact with the planet

whether it’s through your shoes

or your feet

or the chair or the couch or whatever is

under you

just pay attention to the interface of you and

where you meet the planet

and it’s obvious that the ground is

under you

but what’s not so obvious is