Hello my friends,
Yesterday, in preparation for my 10-hour drive back to Ohio today, I downloaded several albums from Apple music and an audiobook. The audiobook was “Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver.” It was four hours long and was really well done, I thought. It not only featured readings of about 30 of Oliver’s poems (by the poet and others), but also memories of Oliver from former students and friends, as well as a reflection on her works.
On the music side of things, it was a celebration of all things Jonathan Larson – “Rent” and “tick, tick…BOOM” and an album called “Jonathan Sings Larson”, which was issued by the Library of Congress and is a compilation of audio recordings of variable quality – some live performances as well as his own demo recordings of songs he wrote. I am such a huge fan of Jonathan Larson. I always listen to his music with a tinge of sadness, wondering what he would have produced had his life not been cut short. He died of an undiagnosed aortic dissection – in fact twice misdiagnosed – in the early morning hours of the day before Rent had its first Off-Broadway preview. Rent went on to open on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Mary Oliver’s most famous poem is “The Summer Day”, with the line most quoted being, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” In fact, many of her poems have an urgency about them regarding our brief existence on this earth, and the need to get on with our lives posthaste. In “Fourth Sign of the Zodiac” she writes, “I know you never intended to be in this world. But you’re in it all the same. So why not get started immediately” and in “When Death Comes” she writes, “When it’s over I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.”
Mary Oliver died at age 83; Jonathan Larson died at age 35. They both lived such full lives, touching so many other lives with their art. I miss them both even though of course I never met either of them. I consider today a day well lived having spent it with these two souls.
I hope you have a wonderful week.
Love,
Michelle xoxo
P.S. I dearly love that little pup Pokey.