Invitation

Oh, do you have time, for this? To attend to the flower, to the dragonfly that holds its endless fantasy of banks and streams and all our old, strange needs. Oh, let the summer rain come, it will be worth it, to collect the few bright pearls that hang in every living thing a dragonfly or a sparrow, a warm, wind-blown dalliance, a clumsy dance under a flower. Time can be held, if it is lovingly welcomed, bring your heart, bring your bones, every limber thought out to play where the branches bloom, where the colors grow solemn and true.

• Mary Oliver