This episode is dedicated to Mary Oliver, the ferociously beautiful and connecting poet. I improvise songs inspired by a conversation between Krista Tippett and Mary Oliver from 2015.
You can find the original On Being podcast by visiting Mary Oliver—Listening to the World —The On Being Project with Krista Tippett.
Transcript
[Opening and introduction]
[Opens with Mary Oliver and Krista Tippet speaking]
2:00
The marvel of the sun
It shines on everyone
The marvel of the sun
Shines on everyone
No one’s left untouched
In the cover where the grapes grow
Because life climbs toward the sun
And no one wants to hear tomorrow’s news
When your end will come
But sweet are all the days
That still guide you
On growing and changing into who you’ll be
When you’re old, may you be a fun person
Now if you’re young, you won’t know what the fear feels like
4:00
And the mountains call your name
And the mountains, they call your name
By the shirt and collar, they know your look
Fresh and lean, fresh and lean
Like love is real
And you hold it all in high esteem
Where you’re confident that it’s a dream
‘Cause it doesn’t seem like I could ever taste that
It’s almost the end
And you know it’s true
5:25
Mary Oliver reads two poems, two parts of four in a series.
“But this morning the shrubs were full of the blue flowers again”
7:00
Believe in truth
And trust in love
There is something
To hold these fears
Passing by where people don’t have to run and hide
Where something is better than fear
Than fear
Then it goes back to where you came from
And it flows back through where you came from
And we all that love is essential
It is all what we need
We hold each other in kindness
Like the blue flower
Like the blue flower
Like the blue flowers
Like the blue flowers
It was always just a dream
But time steals
All the hope that’s there
But we don’t hold it
Like a stone near a hearth
It’s coming for you
Like hope that overcomes our fears
It’s coming
It’s coming for you
It’s coming for you
It’s coming for you
10:30
The plants go left and right
Marching through their lives
They roll down endless roads
Where they are tested strike
They have all they want from it
They go searching on
They have nothing that is left
They have found the end
They have found the end
They have found the end
They have found, found the end, the end
Of striving
Of looting and losing
Of not knowing of what’s ahead
12:10
And the joy that is in
Every moment we have, oh
Oh it’s ours
Oh it’s ours for the taking
So do not get lost in fear
Do not get confused that I regret this
Do not misunderstand the joy that’s in my heart
The joy that’s in my heart
The joy that fills my every fond memory
And it didn’t start out that way
And it didn’t start out that way
It didn’t start out that way, oh no
13:30
When I was young
It was terrible in every way
Oh, it was so gray
Clouds covered all my perceptions
I could not learn the truth
Learn the truth
So hold on! to what you have
So hold on! to what you have
Hold on! to what you have
Hold on! to what you have
Oh sweet joy
We’re at the end
It’s been so much fun ’cause I let all the pain go
It doesn’t have to always haunt you
Watch the flower bloom
What does it do?
Does it regret its days and its choices?
Or its inability to have changed what happened
16:00
So just go and love the sun
So just know, and love the sun
So just know, and love the sun
So just know, and love the sun
So just know, and love the sun
So just know, and love the sun
Until the rain starts washing you
To terrible places you did not want
Into spaces you did not want
And you know there are futures
. . .
[This is a low point in this set. I think it picks up after this. I haven’t finished transcribing the lyrics. —Jesse]