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One of the astonishing aspects of [Oliver's] work is the consistency of tone over this long period. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets. ... These poems sustain us rather than divert us. Although few poets have fewer human beings in their poems than Mary Oliver, it is ironic that few poets also go so far to help us forward.Tags
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"Sometimes the great bones of my life feel so heavy, and all the tricks my body knows— the opposable thumbs, the kneecaps, and the mind clicking and clicking— don’t seem enough to carry me through this world and I think: how I would like to have wings"
So writes Mary Oliver in one of the first poems of this collection---and throughout she exposes her confrontation with mortality and her and our earthbound nature.
Selected in reverse chronological order, the poems show the growth of the poet over three decades. He language is vivid and her poetic seeing often surprisingly exact:
"the black snake jellies forward"
"and the birds, in the endless waterfalls of the trees"
She loves life, loves nature, with the passion of one who knows show more mortality in the flight of an owl's hunger. Spend some time with this poet and the wonderful words she leaves behind for us to follow, like a trail through the forest. show less
So writes Mary Oliver in one of the first poems of this collection---and throughout she exposes her confrontation with mortality and her and our earthbound nature.
Selected in reverse chronological order, the poems show the growth of the poet over three decades. He language is vivid and her poetic seeing often surprisingly exact:
"the black snake jellies forward"
"and the birds, in the endless waterfalls of the trees"
She loves life, loves nature, with the passion of one who knows show more mortality in the flight of an owl's hunger. Spend some time with this poet and the wonderful words she leaves behind for us to follow, like a trail through the forest. show less
Oliver presents stunning meanings from her small views of small moments, wrought with an exceptional eye toward detail and nuance. Humanity measured in buzzing wings of a bee.
Every poem in here is perfection, but my favorites are , of course, "Morning Poem" and "Wild Geese." Here's "Wild Geese":
"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and show more exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things." show less
"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and show more exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things." show less
Too bad this was a library book, as these are poems to read again and again.
Oliver is a favorite poet, worth rereading and worth finding more of her work.
I love Mary Oliver, and this is my favorite volume of her poetry.
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Author Information
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
Awards and Honors
Awards
Notable Lists
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1992
- Dedication
- for Molly Malone Cook
- First words
- All afternoon it rained, then such power came down from the clouds on a yellow thread, as authoritative as God is supposed to be.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But what I love, is the gray stubborn hawk who floats alone beyond the frozen vines; and what I dream of are the patient deer who stand on legs like reeds and drink the wind;--they are what saves the world: who choose to grow thin to a starting point beyond this squalor.
- Blurbers
- Stephen Dobyns
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 703
- Popularity
- 40,279
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (4.32)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- UPCs
- 4
- ASINs
- 5
