I found the post I mentioned in my comment to Susan's post on The Sound of Music. It was written by Susan Howard on March 15, 2024. I miss Susan and her posts and sincerely hope that she is well.

"Often when I do a deep reading of a piece of literature or a poem, I look at the words specifically for one that makes me pause, to wonder why the artist chose that particular word and how I might or might not substitute another word for it and what word and why. When I find there is nothing I could change to make the text better for me, I know I am in the presence of the sublime."

In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Artist: Sabine Hahnel

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