Devotions
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that's often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid of
its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
- Oliver, Mary. Devotions. Penguin Press, NY: 2017. (pg. 61)
About This Poem
Published: 2017 (from Devotions)
Why The Poet?
Mary Oliver was one of America's most beloved contemporary poets. She won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, but that's not why people loved her. Oliver wrote with clarity and simplicity about profound things: how to be alive, how to notice what's around you, how to let joy in when it arrives. Her poems feel less like literature meant to impress and more like wisdom from someone who spent a lifetime paying attention to the world.
Why The Poem?
"Don't Hesitate" is Oliver's gentle insistence that we stop second-guessing moments of joy. Stop analyzing it, stop questioning whether you deserve it, stop bracing for when it will end. Just let yourself have it.
We chose this poem because it's a radical act of self-compassion. Joy doesn't need to be earned, qualified, or justified. It just needs us to stop resisting it when it shows up.
