A Poem Worth Reading Slowly • October 2026
When Death Comes
Mary Oliver, Ted Lasso, and the last ten minutes of a season finale
If you haven’t watched the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, you really should. It’s the best thing I’ve ever watched on any network or streaming service. The first three seasons were terrific, and I was a little nervous about the show coming back after three years. But the magic is still there. Jason Sudeikis is as phenomenal as ever, and the whole cast is amazing.
No spoilers here. But over the last ten minutes of the Season 4 finale, the words of a poem scroll across the screen: Mary Oliver’s “When Death Comes.” It’s a beautiful piece of writing, and one I won’t soon forget.
I’m turning 75 this December, and I’ve read plenty about death — from preachers, philosophers and physicists. This poem doesn’t argue about what comes next. It just asks whether you were really here while you had the chance. Mary Oliver’s answer is to meet the whole world with amazement, and to step through that last door curious instead of afraid. I can’t think of a better way to live, or a better way to go.
About Mary Oliver (1935–2019)
- Born in Maple Heights, Ohio, she spent most of her life in Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod, writing about the woods, ponds and shoreline she walked nearly every day.
- She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984, for American Primitive.
- “When Death Comes” appears in New and Selected Poems (1992), which won the National Book Award.
- She’s often called America’s best-selling poet, and her lines turn up on everything from greeting cards to graduation speeches — and now, a soccer show.
Thank you, Ted Lasso, for ending with a poem.
Believe.
Believe.
Written October 2026, with AI research assistance — in keeping with my published AI Collaboration Manifesto. “When Death Comes” © Mary Oliver; read it in full at the Library of Congress.