“That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. “Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?”

—Mary Oliver, Long Life: Essays and other Writing, Capo Press, 2005

Image: Poet on a Mountain Top, ink on paper or ink and light colour on paper, album leaf mounted as a hand scroll, by Shen Zhou, Ming dynasty; in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., U.S. 38.7 × 60.2 cm.The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; purchase Nelson Trust (46–51/2)