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Wednesday
“How should I live my life?”, a line that one expects from Mary Oliver, shows up in a poem by Marie Howe, the recipient of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In these tempestuous times, any number of the political blogs I read are careful to add the caution, “Don’t forget to engage in self-care.” Given the danger of burnout and exhaustion, “The Maples” provides important advice.
Essentially the poet advocates communing with nature to calm the mind. This is hardly novel, as anyone who practices meditation will tell you. The key lies in how the poem helps bring the reader to the desired state. If, at the beginning of the poem, the speaker is worried enough to be asking existential questions, the maples behind the house respond to her distress like a parent ministering to a crying child: “They said, shhh shhh shhh…” And in the momentary quiet that such reassurance brings, nature steps to the fore.
The Maples
By Marie HoweI asked the stand of maples behind the house,
How should I live my life?They said, shhh shhh shhh…
How should I live, I asked, and the leaves seemed to ripple and gleam.
A bird called from a branch in its own tongue,
And from a branch, across the yard, another bird answered.A squirrel scrambled up a trunk
then along the length of a branch.Stand still, I thought,
See how long you can bear that.Try to stand still, if only for a few moments,
drinking light breathing
Find some greenery, stand still, listen and look, drink in the light, and breathe. For as long as you can bear it.
