Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

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She and Millay’s sister Norma became friends, and Oliver “more or less lived there for the next six or seven years,” helping organize Millay’s papers. Her main themes continue to be the intersection between the human and the natural world, as well as the limits of human consciousness and language in articulating such a meeting. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.

Though easily her best known quote is ‘ Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life? Part of what has retained Mary Oliver’s popularity is she is so endlessly quotable and her numerous, beloved one-liners come from poems so good its almost a shame to highlight them without the full thing. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Krista Tippett, interviewing Oliver for her radio show, “On Being,” referred to Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese,” which offers a consoling vision of the redemption possible in ordinary life, as “a poem that has saved lives.But an equal part is that she offers her readers a spiritual release that they might not have realized they were looking for. Oliver compared her job of putting words on a page to the greater brilliance found in the ‘verbal hilarity’ of a mockingbird or the pure gracefulness of a white heron. This past week as the weight of work bore down on me, I sought refuge in her verse, and read a couple each evening. Oliver’s poems have mostly been inspired by her long walks within the woods and shoreline of Provincetown, Mass.

Her poetry invites in feelings of peace and gladness, in a simple heart felt way that isn’t forced or over exaggerated as some poetry can be. She did occasional stints of teaching elsewhere, but for the most part stayed unusually rooted to her home base.this feeling what is in each moment leads deeper and deeper into an embodied connection and for me a reverential awe at the interconnectedness of all life which inspires in me a devotional love beyond words. I took this slowly and read 10-20 pages each morning over my first coffee and it became my solace, the way Oliver describes nature is unmatched and I am so sad it’s over. I have discovered over and over again that reading Oliver’s poetry provides a transport of delight to beauty and wonder. Beginning with a string of similes to describe the threatening and fearsome idea of approaching death, this poem develops into a plea for curiosity in the face of death and what might come next.