What to do?
36″ x 36″ x 46″
Steel, powder coated, bronze
One line penned by the poet Mary Oliver has stayed with me over the years. “Tell me, “ she asks, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I heard that question at age 17 when I wondered about becoming a monk. It surfaced again when I found myself, after years of study, mismatched to a profession. Then again when pondering marriage. Later still, when about to retire.
Why do I mention such times? To tell you about my self? No. I simply want to thank Mary Oliver for asking the question with which we all struggle, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Answered once, it will rise again. The sculpture is a reminder.
My hope is that the stark contemporary form of the sculpture will move viewers to take a second look, to notice its small bronze bird, and be drawn to ponder Mary Oliver’s sentiment.
“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do?