*both entitled Hell and Earth – so different, and both – to my mind – lovely and meaningful. the first, by the great poet Mary Oliver, the second by another great poet, WB Yeats. Although, now that I’ve looked numerous time for the Yeats poem on the inter-web, it’s not there under that name… Hmmm.. must have a different name? Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice – when first, second, and third we use or rely on in any way the INTERNET…AHa!!! It’s called When You Are Old and if that isn’t Hell and Earth (being old) I don’t know what is… LOL
Hell and Earth
Ordinarily, I go to the woods alone, with not a single friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore unsuitable.
I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my way of praying, as you no doubt have yours.
Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.
If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.
–Mary Oliver
When You Are Old (!!)
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft
look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
~W.B. Yeats