Special Post #2

Text: Mary Oliver’s Six Recognitions of the Lord: Stanza 5

“Oh, feed me this day, Holy Spirit, with

the fragrance of the fields and the

freshness of the oceans which you have

made, and help me to hear and to hold

in all-dearness those exacting and wonderful

words of our Lord Christ Jesus, saying:

Follow me.”

I speak to the Lord as if He were next to me sometimes and sometimes think it might feel weird at first; I know that He is there right next to me. He is not distant as some believe; He sees my every move and He knows my every thought. He sent His Holy Spirit to me when He left this earth and promises to come back and get me. I can’t wait for that day, it’s going to be so sweet when my Savior comes back to get me, what a wonderful thought. But until that day the Holy Spirit is here to comfort me and part of Mary Oliver’s text is a prayer to our comforter and our Lord. God fills us up in many different ways but through the expression of Him through creation Mary Oliver captures a glimpse of what that filling up of our soul looks like and feels like.

“Oh, feed me this day, Holy Spirit, with the fragrance of the fields and the freshness of the oceans which you have made...”

Oliver speaks about God and the relationship with Him so eloquently and paints a picture of us being filled up with His presence through the sightings of His creation. Look at the fields how they grow in glory of God providing water and nutrition for them to grow; they are worshiping His name as they grow. Look at the ocean as the waves move in praise to Him and how the ocean obeys Him when He speaks. Through these examples we see how creation praises God’s name, He is their creator and they all give Him glory because He is worthy of it all. In this section of the poem the author is asking the Lord to fill her up in more ways than one. She wants to “Hear and to hold in all dearness” the words of the Lord speaking to hear which I can identify so much with.

“…wonderful words of our Lord Christ Jesus, saying: Follow me.”

Jesus calls us to follow Him many times in the bible (especially in the books of the gospel where he talks about picking up our crosses and following Him) and through this He will fill us up like Oliver talks about in her poem.

When you first read this text you get the meaning of it and you can identify with it in a genuine way but then you go back and read it again and it means so much more. Oliver is asking the Holy Spirit to fill her up and she wants to follow God like He asks us too. When you read it again you can begin to envision the fields as they sway in the wind and you smell that wonderful fragrance of the Lord as He places His hand on the crop to make it grow. You read the line about the freshness of the oceans and you can see the oceans through your eyes and feel the waves bringing peace to your soul as you sit and watch them wash up on the shore. And then Oliver asks the Lord to help her hear and hold the words of Christ close because she doesn’t want to forget them. It is so easy for us to forget but she doesn’t want to ever forget the sweet words of our Lord which beckon us to follow Him. Once you read over this a couple times you see how she wants to keep that open connection between her and God and never lose it.

This text to me really reminds me of my relationship with God. Lately God has been redefining our relationship and making me fall madly and deeply in love with Him once again because sometimes I can get away from my first love, which is Him. God truly does capture my gaze when I realize how amazing He is and how much He loves me. Oliver’s whole poem ‘Six Recognitions of the Lord’ really spoke to me because it’s the words that I often try to find to describe the relationship between the Lord and I but sometimes I just can’t put it into words. The stanza that I chose really stuck out to me because it’s almost like a prayer that I always ask God for myself. I always am asking God to pour out His spirit on my life and over fill my cup so that I am totally content with Him and what He has for me. I want to have eyes that are always focused on Him above me and I want to be involved with Him every moment that I live. 2 Peter 1: 3-4 talks about God providing everything that I need forever and I love the fact that when I trust in Him and rely in Him for everything I know that He will never fail me.

Mary Oliver’s words spoke loudly to me and the more that I read them the louder they became. Even her other poems that we read in class spoke to me as well. The way she paints pictures with words is like nothing I’ve ever read. Her poems compliment the Bible so well when you think about it. She is speaking of what the scriptures are speaking of but they are in her own words. Actually in the beginning she confesses that she has a lot of fancy words but she doesn’t want those, she wants just her words to God and no fluff to go with them. I by no means am a poet but this is what I want when I speak to my savior. I want my words to be genuine as this poem sounds and I want God to hear nothing but my words, just my own words that are not fancy words but what I truly feel in my heart towards Him.