November 7: Completely Frivolous, Mary Oliver, "Mozart, for Example"

It has been one of those days where it feels like I haven't stopped since I woke up at 4:45 this morning.  I worked my eight hours at the medical office.  I graded an entire stack of papers.  I drove home and voted.  I brought my daughter to her dance lesson.  Now, I'm back home, trying to come up with a lesson plan about annotated bibliography.

I know, I know.  Exciting, right?

I simply want to sit back and do something completely frivolous.  Strip naked and do a couple laps around my house.  (Too cold for that, and I might get arrested.)  Watch the movie Elf like Rocky Horror, talking back to the screen and throwing toilet paper or candy corn.  (Don't want to deal with the clean up.)  Take a Xanax and a nap.  (Don't have any Xanax, and I don't have time for a nap.)

Saint Marty is going to have to settle for a poem that makes him smile.

Mozart, for Example

by:  Mary Oliver

All the quick notes
Mozart didn't have time to use
before he entered the cloud-boat

are falling now from the beaks
of the finches
that have gathered from the joyous summer

into the hard winter
and, like Mozart, they speak of nothing
but light and delight,

though it is true, the heavy blades of the world
are still pounding underneath.
And this is what you can do too, maybe,

if you live simply and with a lyrical heart
in the cumbered neighborhoods or even,
as Mozart sometimes managed to, in a palace,

offering tune after tune after tune,
making some hard-hearted prince
prudent and kind, just by being happy.