National Poetry Month: When Death Comes

How much richer could our lives be if we were willing to be "brides married to amazement"? Mary Oliver strikes again.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, because we can never have enough good poetry in the world.

When Death Comes

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

--Mary Oliver

Image by KRob2005, from Flickr, under a Creative Commons License.