Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness | Mary Oliver
by Elouise
Mary Oliver was born on 10 September 1935 and died on 17 January 2019. Though today’s world isn’t the world she knew, I hear this poem speaking truth about today’s realities. My comments follow.
Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness
Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descendsinto a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry outto the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is marriedto the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will doif the love one claims to have for the world
be true?So let us go on, cheerfully enough,
this and every crisping day,though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.Published 2020 by Penguin Books in Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (p. 49)
Copyright 2017 by NW Orchard LLC
First published in A Thousand Mornings, 2012
I can’t read this poem without thinking about today’s world. We aren’t simply on the cusp of late fall and winter weather. We’re witnessing with our eyes and hearts the end of an era. The title of the poem is heavy with innuendo.
Mary looks at the changing of seasons and points to the goodness of what doesn’t always seem good enough or lovable enough. Who loves to see flowers wilting, or dry old leaves falling to the ground? Or the warm light of day giving way to the icy darkness of each night?
Instead of mourning the passing of warm weather and beautiful fall days, Mary points to what it means to love this world. All of it. No matter what we think about changing seasons, or about the lovability of family, friends, strangers, or even ourselves.
What’s true of nature reminds me of human relationships. Like flower petals falling to the ground, we, too, move from one season, to the next. No one said this would be easy. Nor do we have any idea what beautiful surprises may be waiting just around the corner. Especially in the midst of unfathomable loss and anguish.
Elouise♥
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 2 September 2021
Photo by Sven Brogren found at fineartamerica.com
Telling the Truth 
[…] Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness | Mary Oliver […]
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What Era do you see ending, dear Elouise? How would you verbalize it? Grateful to you, and for you.
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Hi, Nancy.
Here goes–with an apology if I’ve misread your questions. I’m not a student trained in social science or politics. However, when I wrote this line (“We’re witnessing with our eyes and hearts the end of an era”), I was thinking about major upheavals and challenges we face daily without promise of resolution. In addition, we’re lightyears behind the goals and values we say we want, yet do not have or exhibit toward each other. Despite great plans or even dreams of a great society, these visions aren’t held deeply enough or by enough world citizens (not just one nation) to gain traction. The role of electronics and modern-day tendencies to turn almost anything into a huge rift in society can’t be glossed over. In part because we’ve made poor choices and/or have failed to speak out early and often with a multi-cultural outlook.
Just having a quiet (relatively quiet!), simple life won’t, in itself, transform society. In many ways we’ve become caricatures of what it means to be human. We also seem to have lost our interest in thoughtful conversations across political/social divides, or in holding each other accountable regardless of race, color, gender, or religious orientation. When we add climate change and planetary breakdown to the mix, I can’t help wondering how long it will be before this era fades into the woodwork and we become relics of the past. Not just as individual human beings, but as entire people groups.
In general, I’m not a pessimist. However, our current reality here in the USA is enough to push me in that direction, knowing that in the end none of us will emerge as the Messiah come to set all people free.
Phew! I didn’t intend to write this much. Let me know if it doesn’t make sense.
Elouise
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Hi, Nancy.
When I talk about an Era ending, I’m thinking about times in human history (now and in the past) when monumental changes caught this planet and its inhabitants unprepared. Not because everything necessarily went wrong, but because of natural disasters plus human plans that never produced what they promised.
I haven’t lost hope. At the same time, hoping for the best isn’t going to solve social, political, climate change and other disasters we see happening today before our eyes. That doesn’t mean I don’t trust or have hope in our Creator. It means I take seriously unjust and disgraceful realities that have become normalized. This includes, for example, unjustifiable distance between those who have and those who have not. It also means that whatever happens, I can’t assume I’ll be spared. In the end, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? That’s where my hope resides.
Thanks again for your thought-provoking comment! 🙂
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She always looks nature, life, straight in the eye. The easy, the difficult. I’m so grateful she walked the path she did.
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Yes, indeed. She was an exceptionally brave and insightful woman. Thanks for the comment, dw.
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Sorry for the delay, Elouise. My mom took a fall and I have been staying with her at the hospital. I THINK I understand what you mean…is it that you fear the end of even the DESIRE for authentic relationship with each other?…deliberately chosen for and nurtured? I find myself wanting to buoy your hope, which I know is ultimately in Christ. I believe God is ALWAYS REDEEMING, ALWAYS DOING A NEW THING….through US, if we are willing. I thought of you when I read Jesus Calling this morning before I came here to the hospital today. I will email it to you because I don’t know how to upload here. Love you.
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Hi again, Nancy.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mom. She’s fortunate to have you nearby.
Unfortunately, the response I just posted (about hope) ended up under my first reply to you. And your comment (to which I’m now responding) ended up under another reader’s comment. Still, here goes….
As for God always doing a new thing, yes, that can happen in and through us every day. However, we’re also citizens of this world, which brings with it another level of reality and responsibility. I’m thinking about things like fires in the West, hurricanes and tornadoes in the South and Northeast, pandemics, climate change, and power struggles that don’t end well. We didn’t begin all that; we are, however, responsible for conditions that make things worse rather than better. I don’t minimize the importance of what we do as individuals (when we’re willing). Rather, I’m pointing to levels of change that would be more costly (in every way) than most of us are willing to admit or accept. In other words, I don’t know that we’ll get all this together before it’s too late.
Elouise
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