April 21, 2021

Felicity

 


Poetry
2015 Penguin Books
Finished on April 14, 2021
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

“If I have any secret stash of poems, anywhere, it might be about love, not anger,” Mary Oliver once said in an interview. Finally, in her stunning new collection, Felicity, we can immerse ourselves in Oliver’s love poems. Here, great happiness abounds.

Our most delicate chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver has described her work as loving the world. With Felicity she examines what it means to love another person. She opens our eyes again to the territory within our own hearts; to the wild and to the quiet. In these poems, she describes—with joy—the strangeness and wonder of human connection.

I had forgotten that I already read Felicity a couple of years ago! I borrowed a copy from the library for National Poetry Month and wrote about it here. I now have my own copy and added it to my stack of books by Mary Oliver for this year's National Poetry Month reading. There are 38 poems in this collection and I marked five favorites. It doesn't surprise me that all but one were among my favorites in 2019. These are the titles:
Don't Worry
Storage
That Tall Distance
Not Anyone Who Says
Late Spring
Three of the poems that I noted as favorites in 2019 did not stand out this time around, which goes to show that writing, whether it's fiction, nonfiction or poetry speaks to us more powerfully depending on our current state of mind and life situations. It will be interesting to see which of these poems resonate with me in the coming years.

6 comments:

  1. I think I'll look for a copy. I don't read poetry enough.

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    1. Vicki, I don't read poetry very often either. It seems like I binge on it in April and that's it for the year.

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  2. I have grown to love Mary Oliver more and more as I have aged.

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    1. Deb, her poems certainly resonate with me, especially those about the beauty of nature. Ellen Bass is another poet I've started reading and enjoying.

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  3. I have a hard time remembering poems but I looked through my lists and have read this one too. I have to get my hands on it again though and re-discover!

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    1. Iliana, I only remember a couple of poems (none of which are by Mary Oliver), but I'm looking forward to creating a category for poetry here on my blog. It will be nice to look back on my favorites over the years.

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