Poem du Jour - Such Silence

Such Silence

As deep as I ever went into the forest

I came upon an old stone bench, very, very old,

and around it a clearing, and beyond that

trees taller and older than I had ever seen.

Such silence!

It really wasn't so far from a town, but it seemed

all the clocks in the world had stopped counting.

So it was hard to suppose the usual rules applied.

Sometimes there's only a hint, a possibility.

What's magical, sometimes, has deeper roots

     than reason.

I hope everyone knows that.

I sat on the bench, waiting for something.

An angel, perhaps.

Or dancers with the legs of goats.

No, I didn't see either. But only, I think, because

     I didn't stay long enough.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - Tides

Tides

Every day the sea

     blue gray green lavender

pulls away leaving the harbor's

dark-cobbled undercoat

slick and rutted and worm-riddled, the gulls

walk there among old whalebones, the white

     spines of fish blink from the strandy stew

as the hours tick over; and then

far out the faint, sheer

     line turns, rustling over the slack,

the outer bars, over the green-furred flats, over

the clam beds, slippery logs,

barnacle-studded stones, dragging

the shining sheets forward, deepening,

     pushing, wreathing together

wave and seaweed, their piled curvatures

spilling over themselves, lapping

     blue gray green lavender, never

resting, not ever but fashioning shore,

continent, everything.

And here you may find me

on almost any morning

walking along the shore so

     light-footed so casual.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - Today

Today

Today I'm flying low and I'm

not saying a word.

I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little,

the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.

And so forth.

But I'm taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather.

I hardly move though really I'm traveling

a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors

into the temple.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - If I Were

If I Were

There are lots of ways to dance and

to spin, sometimes it just starts my

feet first then my entire body, I am 

spinning no one can see it but it is

happening. I am so glad to be alive,

I am so glad to be loving and loved.

Even if I were close to the finish,

even if I were at my final breath, I

would be here to take a stand, bereft

of such astonishments, but for them.

If I were a Sufi for sure I would be

one of the spinning kind.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - A Thousand Mornings

A Thousand Mornings

All night my heart makes its way

however it can over the rough ground

of uncertainties, but only until night

meets and then is overwhelmed by

morning, the light deepening, the

wind easing and just waiting, as I 

too wait (and when have I ever been 

disappointed?) for redbird to sing.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - And Bob Dylan Too

And Bob Dylan Too

"Anything worth thinking about is worth

     singing about."

Which is why we have 

songs of praise, songs of love, songs

     of sorrow.

Songs to the gods, who have

     so many names.

Songs the shepherds sing, on the

     lonely mountains, while the sheep

          are honoring the grass, by eating it.

The dance-songs of the bees, to tell

     where the flowers, suddenly, in the

          morning light, have opened.

A chorus of many, shouting to heaven,

     or at it, or pleading.

Or that greatest of love affairs, a violin

     and a human body.

And a composer, maybe hundreds of years dead.

I think of Schubert, scribbling on a cafe

     napkin.

          Thank you, thank you.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - Poem of the One World

 

Poem of the One World

This morning

the beautiful white heron

was floating along above the water

and then into the sky of this 

the one world

we all belong to

where everything

sooner or later

is a part of everything else

which thought made me feel

for a little while

quite beautiful myself.

~Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - The Gardener

 

The Gardener

Have I lived enough?

Have I loved enough?

Have I considered Right Action enough, have I

     come to any conclusions?

Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?

Have I endured loneliness with grace?

I say this, or perhaps I'm just thinking it.

     Actually, I probably think too much.

Then I step out into the garden,

where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,

     is tending his children, the roses.

~ Mary Oliver

Poem du Jour - I Go Down to the Shore

I Go Down to the Shore

I go down to the shore in the morning

and depending on the hour the waves

are rolling in or moving out,

and I say, oh, I am miserable,

what shall--

what should I do? And the sea says

in its lovely voice:

Excuse me, I have work to do.

~ Mary Oliver

Dog Songs

 

Dog Songs by Mary Oliver

Poetry

2015 Penguin Books (first published in 2013)

Finished on April 28, 2021

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

Mary Oliver's Dog Songs is a celebration of the special bond between human and dog, as understood through the poet's relationships to the canines that have accompanied her daily walks, warmed her home, and inspired her work. Oliver's poems begin in the small everyday moments familiar to all dog lovers, but through her extraordinary vision, these observations become higher meditations on the world and our place in it.

Dog Songs includes visits with old friends, like Oliver's beloved Percy, and introduces still others in poems of love and laughter, heartbreak and grief. Throughout, the many dogs of Oliver's life merge as fellow travelers and as guides, uniquely able to open our eyes to the lessons of the moment and the joys of nature and connection.

Dog Songs is my final selection of Mary Oliver's poetry, which I chose to read for National Poetry Month. While this collection includes 36 poems and essays, only two spoke to me.

How It Is With Us, And How It Is With Them

If You Are Holding This Book

I had hoped for more meaningful (and relatable) poems, but this was a disappointment.

Blue Horses

 

Blue Horses by Mary Oliver

Poetry

2014 Penguin Books

Finished on April 18, 2021

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In this stunning collection of new poems, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life’s work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature.

Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and impermanence. Whether considering a bird’s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees, or the artworks of Franz Marc, Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.

At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes. Humorous, gentle, and always honest, Oliver is a visionary of the natural world.

Blue Horses is the third collection of Mary Oliver's poems that I chose to read for National Poetry Month. This volume contains 38 poems, five of which I enjoyed and plan to share at a later date on this blog. Those titles are:

Such Silence

Watering the Stones

Franz Marc's Blue Horses

The Oak Tree Loves Patience

What Gorgeous Thing

It's a joy to simply flip through this book and read one of the poems to see if it sparks inspiration or brings me a sense of peace. I have read and reread many of Oliver's poems and I'm sure others will speak to me when I read this book next year.

Felicity

 

Felicity by Mary Oliver

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.

A Thousand Mornings

 

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Poetry

2012 Penguin Books

Finished on April 14, 2021

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her treasured dog Percy, Oliver is open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments and explores with startling clarity, humor, and kindness the mysteries of our daily experience.

I rarely ever receive books for my birthday or Christmas, but this past year my husband gave me not one, but four of Mary Oliver's books! I decided to wait until National Poetry Month before starting in on this lovely collection of poetry and I began with A Thousand Mornings, which I read every morning over the course of two weeks. I love the simplicity of Oliver's words and her focus on nature and the environment, as well as on life and death. Of the 36 poems in this slim edition, I marked 8 that spoke to me. Those favorites are as follows:

I Go Down To The Shore

The Gardener

If I Were

Poem Of The One World

And Bob Dylan Too

Today

A Thousand Mornings

Tides

There are too many to quote here, but I plan to share each one individually in the coming months.

Gratitude

Messenger

~by Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.