<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); "><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.28; ">I Happened To Be Standing</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.28; ">I don't know where prayers go,<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> or what they do.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Do cats pray, while they sleep<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> half-asleep in the sun?<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Does the opossum pray as it<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> crosses the street?<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">The sunflowers? The old black oak<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> growing older every year?<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">I know I can walk through the world,<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> along the shore or under the trees,<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">with my mind filled with things<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> of little importance, in full<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">self-attendance. A condition I can't really<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> call being alive<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> or does it matter?<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">The sunflowers blaze, maybe that's their way.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.28; ">While I was thinking this I happened to be standing<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">just outside my door, with my notebook open,<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">which is the way I begin every morning.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Then a wren in the privet began to sing.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">I don't know why. And yet, why not.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">I wouldn't persuade you from whatever you believe<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">or whatever you don't. That's your business.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">But I thought, of the wren's singing, what could this be<br style="box-sizing: border-box; "> if it isn't a prayer?<br style="box-sizing: border-box; ">So I just listened, my pen in the air.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.28; "><br></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.28; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- Mary Oliver</div></span></body></html>