Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver
Mary Oliveris an American poet who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times described her as "far and away, this country's best-selling poet."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth10 September 1935
CityMaple Heights, OH
CountryUnited States of America
believe misery afraid-of-death
What misery to be afraid of death. What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.
follow-your-dreams curious clutter
I have a notion that if you are going to be spiritually curious, you better not get cluttered up with too many material things.
humility mind glare
In the glare of your mind, be modest. And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.
motivational attention devotion
Attention is the beginning of devotion.
summer running dark
When the blackberries hang swollen in the woods, in the brambles nobody owns, I spend all day among the high branches, reaching my ripped arms, thinking of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth; all day my body accepts what it is. In the dark creeks that run by there is this thick paw of my life darting among the black bells, the leaves; there is this happy tongue.
beautiful beautiful-day break
What can we do about God, who makes and then breaks every god-forsaken, beautiful day?
attention end-of-life ends
The end of life has its own nature, also worth our attention.
world
My work is loving the world.
notebook writing journey
I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write.
today happens
Today again I am hardly myself. It happens over and over.
airplane world firsts
Drive down any road, take a train or an airplane across the world, leave your old life behind, die and be born again~ wherever you arrive they'll be there first, glossy and rowdy and indistinguishable. The deep muscle of the world.
animal body wild-geese
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
prayer attention how-precious-life-is
I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention...
soul listening my-own
I was hurrying through my own soul . . . I was leaning out . . . I was listening.