hello, sun in my face
watch, now, how I start day in
happiness, kindness
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety—
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light—
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
WHY I WAKE EARLY in Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver (Penguin Press: New York, 2017).
This was the moments before the sun came up out of the Atlantic Ocean today, December 18, 2025. One of the shortest days of the year.
I go from fighting with the morning traffics where everyone who has to be to work on 7 am, tries to makes over the bridge and through the woods of Hilton Head Island even though there are only two roads.
The fun part is that for about a half mile before it splits, the road is 5 lanes wide and closes down to two lanes either side of the split.
There are all of us who work on the island and then there are those poor visitors who think they had driven hours to leave the woes of traffic behind.
I do feel sorry for them as I yell at them to get out of my way.
Then off to the left on the little used Cross Island Parkway and all at once I am on the Cross Island Bridge with the only view available on the island because any island in the low country … is FLAT and covered with trees.
And off to my left is the Atlantic Ocean and 1,000s of miles of nothing and the sky and the rising sun.
Best preacher that ever was,
Dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light—
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day, in happiness, in kindness.
Quite a transformation for the scant miles and few minutes of just a little bit ago.
No Haiku For You 