Conversation on the Other Side
Have you run into each other
over there? On the other side?
Mary O and Dolly Parton,
what a thrill to even think
of you talking together,
trading the flavors
of your natural wisdoms.
Both of you
down-to earth,
with your humble roots
and everyday language;
both of you guides for authenticity,
profound in your empathy
for all that’s ordinary.
Are you making one another
laugh to kingdom come?
At the wrong guesses you made
about what it might be like?
I imagine, too, your small smiles,
over all that each of you while here,
got so, so right.
©Susa Silvermarie 2026
Same vibration level. Love this, Susa
How I love that you imagined a conversation between these two great artists. Watched documentaries on both of them last week, which made your poem ever more plausible.
Both on PBS and other places:
Dolly Parton: Here I Am (2019)
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World (2026)