She was well enough to read and walk.
What exactly did she read? Lucretius wrote a lot.
Maybe he wrote about frogs dancing and herons at funerals?
I’ve heard it said Mary danced, out by a pond in her garden in Ohio.
She was natural, a youngster gestated by Mother Nature. With frogs and herons for siblings.
Mary saw the Roman’s sword in the beak of the heron that washed in her shining water.
After reading her poem, I know all this. As if I’m a biographer, historian, anthropologist, archaeologist, drinking tea in Café Beva.
I hope her friends danced in black at her funeral, the way she did after reading Lucretius.
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Note (1) In 54 BC, Cicero said: “The poems of Lucretius exhibit many flashes of genius, and yet show great mastership.”
Note (2) You’ll find “AFTER READING LUCRETIUS, I GO TO THE POND” in the slim collection “Blue Horse” (2014) by Mary Oliver RIP
From Bath to Cork with baby Grace 