I go down to the shore

I go down to the shore
Mary Oliver

I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.


This was printed in Mary Oliver's book A Thousand Mornings. You can hear Krista Tippet recite it in her interview with Mary Oliver here, read it on a billion blogs like this one, or hear John Green recite it on his podcast (at 0:56) here.