Asked and Answered

The last line of Mary Oliver’s poem A Summer Day reads “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” 

Such an intriguing question! How ever do I answer it so I say the right things. Spending my days 

experimenting with sourdough, 

or trussing a pork loin, deciding what spices to use or folding clean laundry, doesn’t exactly sound wild or precious. And in the time 

between all of those things, I am bent over a page writing, as I did when a 

child. Then I was cutting out paper dolls 

and designing their ball gowns; now I am 

writing stories, poems or life lessons and 

answering Mary Oliver’s question. Also 

not wild or precious. Well, maybe precious. 

Do I want more? Not right now. 

Right now can get rather wild, and right now 

is precious. So I bid you goodnight and leave 

you with the same question:  “…..what is it 

you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

“Tell me, what else should I have done?”

~ Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

Author's note: 

Asked and Answered inspired by The Summer Day by Mary Oliver