Mary Oliver's New Collection

"Painted" in the Waterlogue App from a personal photo taken in Port Townsend, Washington

I have just read and greatly enjoyed Mary Oliver's new collection of poems, Blue Horses.  I love several of the poems in the book, but my favorite is quoted below.

          IF I WANTED A BOAT

                     by Mary Oliver

          I would want a boat, if I wanted a

          boat, that bounded hard on the waves,

          that didn't know starboard from port

          and wouldn't learn, that welcomed

          dolphins and headed straight for the 

          whales, that, when rocks were close,

          would slide in for a touch or two,

          that wouldn't keep land in sight and

          went fast, that leaped into the spray.

          What kind of life is it always to plan

          and do, to promise and finish, to wish

          for the near and the safe?  Yes, by the 

          heavens, if I wanted a boat I would want

          a boat that I couldn't steer.