December 29, 2012: When Death Comes

INTRO:

Okay, the title does sound a little depressing, but this poem is actually very uplifting if you bother to read and ponder it.

Oliver challenges us to view our mortality as a means of giving our lives, now in this moment, meaning and our fullest attention.  As eternity will surely happen to us all, this poem provides us a chance to claim today what is our birthright: joy, passion, peace, and the opportunity to live our lives to the fullest.


TODAY'S POEM:      When Death Comes
WORDSMITH:          Mary Oliver (1935 - Present)
SOURCE:                New And Selected Poems: Volume One


When Death Comes

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 his 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 a 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
or full of argument.

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


QUERIES:

1.  Did she just write a poem about DEATH?  Yup.  What was your first reaction to this poem's title, specifically the use of the word "death"?  Did it alarm you?  Did it surprise you? Did it make you curious?  Did it make you want to avoid the poem all together?  Why do you think you had these reactions or for that matter, a lack of reaction?

2.  Oliver both personifies "Death" and uses the verb "to die" as a metaphor -- "when I step through the Door..." and as an object "that cottage of darkness."   How do you view death?  Do you see it as a finality? As a transition?  As something too taboo to talk about?  Something our society needs to talk more about?

3.  In the poem, Oliver uses the words "curiosity" and "wonder" when contemplating mortality.  Usually, both these words have a positive connotation when we use them in everyday conversation.  In what ways do you have any positive feelings about mortality?  Are you full of curiosity and wonder about mortality?  If not, how could Oliver's novel positive framework regarding mortality change the way you see yourself and your place in the world?

4.  In your opinion, what about Oliver's contemplation about mortality caused her to begin to "look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood"?  If you took this point of view towards "everything", how what kind of change would that produce in you? in others? in the world?

5.  Some things in life seem to be so fixed, such as time and eternity, as if they were cold hard facts.  But often in poetry, facts can be transformed into playful ideas, and playful ideas can become facts.  What sort of reaction do you have to such a "poetical world" where imagination is the only boundary?

6.  How can immersing yourself into the "poetical world" be reminiscent of childhood play?  Do you miss make believe time? Using your imagination to keep you company? Never imagining that life would one day end, but that life was limitless, and so was your potential?  In what ways could poetry and the other arts help bring this important aspect of childhood back into your life as an adult?  Do you still dare to dream?

7.  Oliver ends saying that she "doesn't want to end up simply having visited this world."  In what ways are you now, in this time and place, just a visitor?  In what ways are you a vital component of what makes the world so special and so beautiful?

8.  When it's over, what do you want to say about your life?

9.  What can you right now to make that a reality today, not just at the end when you leave this world to step through the door ?

A conversation has already started in the comments section, care to join? Click the link below. Remember that your words have power, so use them carefully and with love!