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Service

Jul 10, 2021

"I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention..."

—Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver: I Happened to Be Standing

The poems of Mary Oliver seem like prayers that anyone can pray. Spacious and simple, expansive and ordinary, they don't require us to believe in anything in particular. But they do ask us to pay attention to the fleeting and particular space of a moment we are living through, which she has touched so tenderly. Here you can listen to her reading one of her poems: "I Happened to be Standing."

BE THE CHANGE

Poetry is such a key to opening the heart. Perhaps it would shift our understanding of self and world if we listened more to what poets are saying and a little less to the daily newscasts. Better yet, why not write a poem from your own heart.