Trying to Be Thoughtful in the First Brights of Dawn
By Mary Oliver (1935 - 2019)
Mary Oliver is one of the best selling modern American poets. The story goes that she would write poetry during long walks through nature, and after forgetting her pen she hid pencils in trees all throughout her New England estate. “Trying to Be Thoughtful…” captures a little bit of the tension between contemplation and experience.
I am thinking, or trying to think, about all the
imponderables for which we have
no answers, yet endless interest all the
range of our lives, and it's
good for the nead no doubt to undertake such
meditation; Mystery, after all,
is God's other name, and deserves our
considerations surely. But, but -
excuse me now, please; it's morning, heavenly bright,
and my irrepressible heart begs me to hurry on
into the next exquisite moment. 
The most challenging idea in this poem is that mornings can be “exquisite.” All jokes aside, I love that this poem that starts with the idea that sometimes we have to think, or at least try to think about the deep mysteries in our lives. It’s true! As Socrates famously said, “the unexamined life is not worth living” and we better well find time to do some examining.
“But, but, excuse me now, it’s morning”
Sometimes though, we need to take the thinking cap off and “hurry on to the next exquisite moment.” St. Thomas Aquinas gives us a term for the enlightenment that an early morning cup of coffee can bring. He called it “poetic knowledge” and by that he meant the understanding of reality that can only come through wonder and awe. Oliver might agree that our “irrepressible heart” can understand the mystery of God in a way that our mind really can’t.