Why I Wake Early - Poems of Mary Oliver and Ravi Kopra

Mindful

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Why I Wake Early)

*****

Everyday I wake early and say to myself:
Oh God, what another dreary day!
To pee and shit
brush my teeth, take bath
dress up and rush to work
on the way to stop by Starbucks
for hot black coffee
to wake myself up fully.

At work the same old grunting pig boss,
the same old routines of work, phone calls,
lunch and coffee breaks and pleasantries,
all senseless silly chat of colleagues.
The same old dreary evenings, the same old lonely half-awake nights.

Love for the loveless wife!
Work for the children brain-washed by the wife.
Love does not beget love. Kindness not kindness.
Everyone using everyone for their selfish life.
In such thoughts I lose myself
wondering what's this bullshit life.

-Ravi Kopra