The Sun by Mary Oliver: One Big Powerful Question

June 20, 2008 · by Joanna Paterson · in

I was going to include two short, powerful questions as part of my powerful questions in poems series. They were what I had in mind when I first came up with the idea. But when I was looking through sets of poems I came across one which just demanded to be included here.

Why? Because the whole poem is constructed as one simple, powerful question.

It’s “The Sun” by Mary Oliver

The Sun

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly
oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

When I re-read the poem I thought about the Hawaiian value of Ka l? hiki ola – the value that Managing With Aloha coach Rosa Say is teaching us this month.

Ka La Hiki Ola by Rosa Say on Flickr

Ka La Hiki Ola by Rosa Say on Flickr

This is how Rosa describes the value in words to accompany this gorgeous photograph of the morning sky.

“Ka l? hiki ola
The dawning of a new day.

With every sunrise we get another shot at perfecting our lives, another fresh chance to be all we can possibly be. Another chance to say mahalo, thank you.

This was the view greeting me outside my bedroom window when I got up this morning, just after 5:30am.

Ka l? hiki ola. It is the dawning of a new day, and it’s your day.
Make it your best one ever.”

Rosa explains more of ka l? hiki ola in a VoiceThread (do check it out – the words come to life when you get to hear Rosa pronounce them properly!). In it she asks the question: what does the dawning of a new day mean to you?

Sharing this poem is part of my answer. A question in a poem that helps us greet each day anew.

This is a contribution to the reader involvement project sharing questions (from poems) that have

stuck in our minds, lingered in our imaginations, worked their way into our hearts, changed the way we live our lives.

Photo Credit: Ka l? hiki ola by Rosa Say on Flickr