Extended Solitude

I do not want to be frisky, and theatrical.

I do not want to go forward in the parade of names.

I do not want to be diligent or necessary or in any way heavy.

From my mouth to God's ear, I swear it; i want only

to be a song.

To wander around in the fields like a little reed bird.

To be a song.

-- Mary Oliver, 'The Return'

from

What Do We Know: Poems and Prose Poems

Da Capo Press, 2001

See you later, still, and later still.

M