National Poetry Month 2020 Day 3: “Why I Wake Early” & "Pirate's Life"

For day three I’m bringing one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems, but she certainly may appear again this month, as I have a bunch of favorites among her collection. Her themes of the beauty of nature and appreciation for life always lift me up.

Why I Wake Early

By Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

And spread it over the fields

And into the faces of the tulips

And the nodding morning glories,

And into the windows of, even, the

Miserable and the crotchety—

Best preacher that ever was,

Dear star, that just happens

To be where you are in the universe

To keep us from ever-darkness,

To ease us with warm touching,

To hold us in the great hands of light—

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

In happiness, in kindness.

Am I really going to be able to come up with, and deign to share, 30 poems of my own? I start
to doubt myself. But this is part of a sneaky plan to catalogue my past work (it’s bad, I assure
you!) and to motivate me to produce new pieces. We shall see. For today, I have a poem I wrote
last November, caught up in my pirate story during National Novel Writing Month.

Pirate's Life 

By Blythe Stephens

Let’s light this wretched world on fire,

Flaming out against the dark.

Refusing to get caught in the mire,

Facing consequences stark.

Let’s cross the rugged ocean deeps

When destiny’s siren calls,

Sleeping restless dreaming sleeps

After darkness falls.

Let’s overcome those in our path,

Then gather up the plunder.

Fools who fight us feel our wrath,

Before we send them ‘sunder.

Let’s savor freedom’s pungent tang,

And all that we can of life.

Sing the songs our heroes sang

Find bounty admist strife.