<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It's frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The struck tree burns like a pillar of gold. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">But the blue rain sinks, straight to the white</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">feet of the trees</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">whose mouths open.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Doesn't the wind, turning in circles, invent the dance? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Haven't the flowers moved, slowly, across Asia, then Europe, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">until at last, now, they shine</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in your own yard? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Don't call this world an explanation, or even an education. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">When the Sufi poet whirled, was he looking</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">outward, to the mountains so solidly there</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in a white-capped ring, or was he looking </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to the center of everything: the seed, the egg, the idea</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">that was also there, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">beautiful as a thumb</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">curved and touching the finger, tenderly, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">little love-ring, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">as he whirled, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">oh jug of breath, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in the garden of dust? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Mary Oliver</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(<span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#333333" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">September</span> 10, 1935 - January 17, 2019</font></span></div></div></body></html>