Poem (the spirit likes to dress up)
by Mary Oliver
The spirit
likes to dress up like this:
ten fingers,
ten toes,
shoulders, and all the rest
at night
in the black branches,
in the morning
in the blue branches
of the world.
It could float, of course,
but would rather
plumb rough matter.
Airy and shapeless thing,
it needs
the metaphor of the body,
lime and appetite,
the oceanic fluids;
it needs the body’s world,
instinct
and imagination
and the dark hug of time,
sweetness
and tangibility,
to be understood,
to be more than pure light
that burns
where no one is —
so it enters us —
in the morning
shines from brute comfort
like a stitch of lightning;
and at night
lights up the deep and wondrous
drownings of the body
like a star.
Polished Pear Creative Editing 
Mary Oliver is one of my all time favoite poets. Thank you for sharing this. I named Oliver’s “Dog Songs” as one of the best books of last year. Here is the post if you want to see what I said. I would love to hear your opinion:
http://www.darianburns.com/2014/01/02/best-books-2013/
Darian! Thank you. And yes, I took a look at “Dog Songs” while in Barnes and Noble a little while ago. Powerful and clever and most definitely more about us than dogs!!! 😛 Thanks for commenting on here. I enjoyed your post! Please feel free to tune into my madness here whenever something catches your eye. 🙂
Best,
Amanda