In the Trees at Evening

“and you too have come / into the world to do this, / to go easy, 

to be filled with light / and to shine.” 

from “When I Am Among the Trees” by Mary Oliver

In the Trees at Evening

You too have come

into this world to touch

the hands of someone you love,

to look into the leaves

and be glad.

And, yes, there is pain,

pain so bright it is almost fire.

It burns into light.

Sometimes when all around us

is shards of glass,

broken walls, 

it is hard to remember

that this world is our home,

that hands still touch.

The sky at evening 

fills with a rose

that comes from burning,

a tender flush

that comes through sorrow

to reach us.

Someone says, isn’t it your duty

to be sad, to lament

all that is lost,

to rise up in anger?

Perhaps that is the work of the day

but now evening has come

to find its way through the branches,

and I look up

and am glad of the light.

—Sarah Webb