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
nature tree
Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, Stay awhile.
grief two joy
We shake with joy, we shake with grief. What a time they have, these two housed as they are in the same body.
love inspirational animal
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
flower humble garden
Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life? Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath? Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden, and softly, and exclaiming of their dearness, fill your arms with the white and pink flowers, with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling, their eagerness to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are nothing, forever?
laughter giving-up crazy
Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree... Of course I have to give up, but by then I'm half crazy with the wonder of it--the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.
kindness believe singing
I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.
believe light white
Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled-to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing-that the light is everything-that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.
inspirational life teacher
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
inspirational distance thinking
Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. (from “Mysteries, Yes”)
sight depth asks
I don't ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing.
needs ache worthy
We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.
life attention pay
Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
two fire ability-to-love
In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to question. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.
looks alive world
Look, I want to love this world as though it's the last chance I'm ever going to get to be alive and know it.