Grasshopper: Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Summer is not quite here, but it feels like it. We took our kayak out Monday on a local reservoir and paddled around for a few hours, enjoying the serenity and wildlife that you can only see from tiny boat on a lake.

This is my favorite Mary Oliver poem, commonly called "Grasshopper" though that's not its title. The words are perfect for bringing in the warmth of summer. Below the text is a short video of Mary reading the poem. Here it is:

The Summer Day
By Mary Oliver


Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.


I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?