One of my favorite living American poets is Mary Oliver, with whom I have a couple of things in common.  We were  born in the same year and in the same month; she was born two days before I was.  One other thing we share is a deep love for poetry... for language that makes poetry possible... and for life.   In her New and Selected Poems, she said, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

I was reminded of Mary Oliver earlier this week when I got an e-mail from a trusted, good friend.  She closed the note she sent to me with a Mary Oliver poem, which she said was one of her favorites.  It has been one of mine for awhile, too.

The Uses of Sorrow

(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me

a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

that this, too, was a gift.

                  --Mary Oliver

The poem always reminds me of one of Margaret’s very good friends, Embi Friedberg, who died a couple of years ago after a recurrence of breast cancer.  Embi wanted to die in her own home, so her friends kept a vigil day and night toward the end. It was my turn to be there on the night she died.  I was alone with her when it happened. 

Once a long time ago Embi gave Margaret a little statuette, which she keeps on her desk.  I took a picture of it today for my photo du jour.  It reminds me of Embi... and of Mary Oliver’s poem.