In Praise of Craziness of a Certain Kind
By Mary Oliver

On cold evenings
my grandmother,
with ownership of half her mind —
the other half having flown back to Bohemia —

spread newspapers over the porch floor
so, she said, the garden ants could crawl beneath,
as under a blanket, and keep warm,

and what shall I wish for, for myself,
but, being so struck by the lightning of years,
to be like her with what is left, that loving.

From: New and Selected Poems: Volume Two
Mary Oliver
Beacon Press 10/05
Hardcover $24.95