W W M O D

when people ask, which they never do,
The trick is to ask your self
W W M O D
(what would mary oliver do)

and then i wonder, how do i
go on a forest walk in my mind and
notice the smallest greenest snake and
let it profoundly touch me
?

I wonder how do i workshop words like
"blustering" and 'tremble" and "soft animal of your body" and
move it through me by moving it through
this small green snake by moving it into words
by moving you which moves me to be moved by
the smallest green snake

and a college poetry teacher would say to me,
which they never did,
there is already a M O
(mary oliver)
but there has never been a Y O U
before, and so, write what moves YOU

and that may not be the soft animal body
of someone or a garden snake but
it turns out, I just want to write about
the woman who wrote about those things,
which moves me