Mary Oliver’s Swan

The Swan

by Mary Oliver

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?

Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -

An armful of white blossoms,

A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned

into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,

Biting the air with its black beak?

Did you hear it, fluting and whistling

A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall

Knifing down the black ledges?

And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -

A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet

Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?

And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?

And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?

And have you changed your life?

More than ten years ago, a dear friend in Tucson, Arizona shared this poem with me. What is it about the beauty of nature that doesn’t just arrest our attention, but illuminates a small part of the soul that was dark before? I know Mary Oliver once said that Beauty saved her life. I can understand this. In my experience, beauty is one of the great breadcrumbs leading back to God; picking up its pieces feeds the soul, but then we grow hungry again, and the small illumination fades. At the end of the trail is the Maker. He will confront you with transformation and renewing.