West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems
by Mary Oliver
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The New York Times has called Mary Oliver's poems "thoroughly convincing - as genuine, moving, and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring." In this stunning collection of forty poems - nineteen previously unpublished - she writes of nature and love, of the way they transform over time. And the way they remain constant. And what did you think love would be like? A summer day? The brambles in their places, and the long stretches of mud? Flowers in every field, in every garden, show more with their soft beaks and their pastel shoulders? On one street after another, the litter ticks in the gutter. In one room after another, the lovers meet, quarrel, sicken, break apart, cry out. One or two leap from windows. Most simply lean, exhausted, their thin arms on the sill. They have done all they could. The golden eagle, that lives not far from here, has perhaps a thousand tiny feathers flowing from the back of its head, each one shaped like an infinitely small but perfect spear. show lessTags
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Not all of the poems in this collection resonate with me, but the ones that hit me, for at least a few lines, burn really hot and deep.
There is time left - fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
In this collection of 40 poems Oliver writes about nature and love, of the way they transform over time, and the way they remain constant. From the chaos of the world, her poems distill what it means to be human and what is worthwhile about life.
The majority of these poems are drawn from living in the natural world, its creatures, weather, trees and streams. A few feature a companion animal or a person, and I think I spotted one which alluded to the behavior of people in society. Every one takes on its individual form, not usually formal. There are prose poems but these are if anything more restrained than the others, as though the naturalness of prose needed to be kept. But I always feel a sort of mystery surrounding her words, whether sharp or placid.
The ones that spoke to me the most were "Stars," "Maples," and "Rain, Tree, Thunder and Lightning." Maybe I have a prejudice against the ones which feature animals? or maybe it is because these are closest to the kind of poetry I show more spend the most time with. show less
The ones that spoke to me the most were "Stars," "Maples," and "Rain, Tree, Thunder and Lightning." Maybe I have a prejudice against the ones which feature animals? or maybe it is because these are closest to the kind of poetry I show more spend the most time with. show less
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54+ Works 21,173 Members
Mary Oliver was born in Cleveland, Ohio on September 10, 1935. She attended Ohio State University and Vassar College, but did not receive a degree. Her first collection of poems, No Voyage and Other Poems, was published in 1963. She wrote more than 20 volumes of poetry including The River Styx, Ohio; The Leaf and the Cloud; Evidence; Blue Horses; show more and Felicity. She received several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive, the Christopher Award and the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light, and the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems. Her books of prose include A Poetry Handbook, Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse, and Long Life: Essays and Other Writings. She held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College from 1995 to 2001. She died on January 17, 2019 at the age of 83. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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