Our world, a ship on fire

BOOKING THE FINAL VOYAGE

This poem from Mary Oliver's wonderful new book, A Thousand Mornings, resonated with me, finding common ground both in terms of my age and frame of mind:

ON TRAVELING TO BEAUTIFUL PLACES

Every day I’m still looking for God 

and I’m still finding him everywhere, 

in the dust, in the flowerbeds. 

Certainly in the oceans, 

in the islands that lay in the distance 

continents of ice, countries of sand 

each with its own set of creatures 

and God, by whatever name. 

How perfect to be aboard a ship with 

maybe a hundred years still in my pocket. 

But it’s late, for all of us,

And in truth the only ship there is

Is the ship we are all on

Burning the world as we go.*

* Oliver, Mary (2012-10-11). A Thousand Mornings (Kindle Locations 541-550). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition.

** The above posterized image was inspired by a photo I took of Bar Harbor Maine in 2011 with the addition of setting the cruise ship on fire which ignites a raging forest fire and adding a cast of characters that includes Maye Deren and myself.