Festoon of Fruit and Flowers by Jan Davidsz De Heem
I'm in Ottawa this week , attending a conference. While on a walk yesterday I was ambushed by the smell of lilacs, which have long stopped blooming in central Pa. A small patch of lilies-of-the-valley caught my eye and I knelt down to smell once again that sweet fragrance. Oliver captures well the joy that comes through indulging your senses. Why wouldn't you want to revel in the richness of sensation? It is, indeed, a very sensible thing to do!
The Plum Trees
by Mary Oliver
Such richness flowing
through the branches of summer and into
the body, carried inward on the five
rivers! Disorder and astonishment
rattle your thoughts and your heart
cries for rest but don’t
succumb, there’s nothing
so sensible as sensual inundation. Joy
is a taste before
it’s anything else, and the body
can lounge for hours devouring
the important moments. Listen,
the only way
to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it
into the body first, like small
wild plums.
