R.I.P. Mary Oliver, Poet
Today I am grateful for the beauty of fresh snow on reed grass and for the poetry others have shared with the world.
One such poet, Mary Oliver, died last week at age 83. I have become more familiar with her poetry in recent years and really appreciate it.
She has over 20 collections/books in print and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and a National Book Award in 1992. Though criticized by some as writing poetry that lacked depth, she has been compared to Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson. Pretty good company there.
As a reader myself, I believe she captures very well our significant connections to nature and the profound simplicity of human emotions and existence, when stripped to the core, to what matters most.
These words from her poem "The Summer Day" are always meaningful to me:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
In "When Death Comes," she wrote:
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to simply end up having visited this world.
You did more than visit Mary Oliver. You reached and helped so many of us tap into fuller emotions with your poetry. Particular words and phrases touched me in real ways. Thank you!
One such poet, Mary Oliver, died last week at age 83. I have become more familiar with her poetry in recent years and really appreciate it.
She has over 20 collections/books in print and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and a National Book Award in 1992. Though criticized by some as writing poetry that lacked depth, she has been compared to Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson. Pretty good company there.
As a reader myself, I believe she captures very well our significant connections to nature and the profound simplicity of human emotions and existence, when stripped to the core, to what matters most.
These words from her poem "The Summer Day" are always meaningful to me:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
In "When Death Comes," she wrote:
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to simply end up having visited this world.
You did more than visit Mary Oliver. You reached and helped so many of us tap into fuller emotions with your poetry. Particular words and phrases touched me in real ways. Thank you!
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