(Winner of a 1991 Christopher Award
Winner of the 1991 Bo...)
Winner of a 1991 Christopher Award
Winner of the 1991 Boston Globe Lawrence L. Winship Book Award
This collection of poems by Mary Oliver once again invites the reader to step across the threshold of ordinary life into a world of natural and spiritual luminosity.
(
With piercing clarity and craftsmanship, Mary Oliver ha...)
With piercing clarity and craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned an unforgettable poem of questioning and discovery, about what is observable and what is not, about what passes and what persists. As the U.S. Poet Laureate, Stanley Kunitz, has said: "Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations." The Boston Globe has called Mary Oliver "a great poet . . . she is amazed but not blinded." And the Miami Herald has said: "The gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable."
(
Poets must read and study, but also they must learn to ...)
Poets must read and study, but also they must learn to tilt and whisper, shout, or dance, each in his or her own way, or we might just as well copy the old books. But, no, that would never do, for always the new self swimming around in the old world feels itself uniquely verbal. And that is just the point: how the world, moist and bountiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response. That's the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. 'Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?' This book is my comment.--from the Foreword.
(
“Joy is not made to be a crumb,” writes Mary Oliver, an...)
“Joy is not made to be a crumb,” writes Mary Oliver, and certainly joy abounds in her new book of poetry and prose poems. Swan, her twentieth volume, shows us that, though we may be “made out of the dust of stars,” we are of the world she captures here so vividly. Swan is Oliver’s tribute to “the mortal way” of desiring and living in the world, to which the poet is renowned for having always been “totally loyal.”
(
"Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a...)
"Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing," wrote Stanley Kunitz many years ago; and recently, Rita Dove described her last volume, The Leaf and the Cloud, as "a brilliant meditation." For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's dazzling poetry and luminous vision, as well as for those who may be coming to her work for the first time, What Do We Know will be a revelation. These forty poems-of observing, of searching, of pausing, of astonishment, of giving thanks-embrace in every sense the natural world, its unrepeatable moments and its ceaseless cycles. Mary Oliver evokes unforgettable images-from one hundred white-sided dolphins on a summer day to bees that have memorized every stalk and leaf in a field-even as she reminds us, after Emerson, that "the invisible and imponderable is the sole fact."
(
With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashione...)
With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned fifteen luminous prose pieces: on nature, writing, and herself and those around her. She praises Whitman, denounces cuteness, notes where to find the extraordinary, and extols solitude.
(Mary Oliver's twelfth book of poetry, Red Bird comprises ...)
Mary Oliver's twelfth book of poetry, Red Bird comprises sixty-one poems, the most ever in a single volume of her work. Overflowing with her keen observation of the natural world and her gratitude for its gifts, for the many people she has loved in her seventy years, as well as for her disobedient dog Percy, Red Bird is a quintessential collection of Oliver's finest lyrics.
(The Night Traveler (1978) explores the themes of birth, d...)
The Night Traveler (1978) explores the themes of birth, decay, and death through the conceit of a journey into the underworld of classical mythology. In these poems Oliver's fluent imagery weaves together the worlds of humans, animals, and plants.
(Blue Pastures) Author: Mary Oliver published on (November, 1995)
(With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned ...)
With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned fifteen luminous prose pieces: on nature, writing, and herself and those around her. She praises Whitman, denounces cuteness, notes where to find the extraordinary, and extols solitude.
(
Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows b...)
Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows both chronologically and logically Mary Oliver’s American Primitive, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1983. The depth and diversity of perceptual awareness so steadfast and radiant in American Primitive continues in Dream Work. Additionally, she has turned her attention in these poems to the solitary and difficult labors of the spirit to accepting the truth about one’s personal world, and to valuing the triumphs while transcending the failures of human relationships.
No Voyage and Other Poems 1965 Signed By Mary Oliver
(Book Description: Houghton Mifflin and Company, Boston, M...)
Book Description: Houghton Mifflin and Company, Boston, MA, 1965. Second US. edition. Softcover. The simultaneous paperback issue of Oliver's first book, Very Good. SIGNED and inscribed by Oliver on the half-title in 1968.a slim collection of poems. 67 pages. Wraps very lightly soiled, corners lightly bumpedA very good plus copy in wrappers. Signed by Oliver on the title page and uncommon as such.
second edition
(Thirst, a collection of fortythree new poems from Pulitze...)
Thirst, a collection of fortythree new poems from Pulitzer Prizewinner Mary Oliver, introduces two new directions in the poet's work. Grappling with grief at the death of her beloved partner of over forty years, she strives to experience sorrow as a path to spiritual progress, grief as part of loving and not its end. And within these pages she chronicles for the frst time her discovery of faith, without abandoning the love of the physical world that has been a hallmark of her work for four decades.
(The fifty poems in "American Primitive" make up a body of...)
The fifty poems in "American Primitive" make up a body of luminous unity. Mary Oliver's visionary poems enunciate the renewals of nature and the renewals of humanity in love, in oneness with the natural, in union with the things of this world. Lyrical and elegiac, Mary Oliver celebrates the primitiave things of America - the wilderness that survives both within our bodies and outside - in ."..the cords/ of my body stretching/ and singing in the/ heaven of appetite."
(Mary Oliver has been writing poetry for nearly five decad...)
Mary Oliver has been writing poetry for nearly five decades, and in that time she has become America's foremost poetic voice on our experience of the physical world. This collection presents forty-two new poems-an entire volume in itself-along with works chosen by Oliver from six of the books she has published since New and Selected Poems, Volume One.
(A rich collection of ten poems, two essays, and two dozen...)
A rich collection of ten poems, two essays, and two dozen of Mary Oliver's classic works on flowers, trees, and plants of all sorts, elegantly illustrated, Blue Iris is the essential companion to Owls and Other Fantasies, one of the best-selling volumes of poetry of 2003 and a Book Sense 76 selection.
(The forty-seven new works in this volume include poems on...)
The forty-seven new works in this volume include poems on crickets, toads, trout lilies, black snakes, goldenrod, bears, greeting the morning, watching the deer, and, finally, lingering in happiness. Each poem is imbued with the extraordinary perceptions of a poet who considers the everyday in our lives and the natural world around us and finds a multitude of reasons to wake early.
(Within these pages Mary Oliver collects twenty-six of her...)
Within these pages Mary Oliver collects twenty-six of her poems about the birds that have been such an important part of her life-hawks, hummingbirds, and herons; kingfishers, catbirds, and crows; swans, swallows, and, of course, the snowy owl; among a dozen others-including ten poems original to this volume. She adds two beautifully crafted essays, "Owls," selected for the Best American Essays series, and "Bird," one that will surely take its place among the classics of the genre.
The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays
(From a poet who teaches us the beauty and magic of the na...)
From a poet who teaches us the beauty and magic of the natural world comes a reminder that this world includes "the creatures, with their / thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze. Their / infallible sense of what their lives / are meant to be."
In The Truro Bear and Other Adventures, Mary Oliver brings together ten new poems, thirty-five of her classic poems, and two essays, all about mammals, insects, and reptiles. The award-winning poet considers beasts of all kinds: bears, snakes, spiders, porcupines, humpback whales, hermit crabs, and, of course, her beloved and disobedient little dog, Percy, who appears and even speaks in thirteen poems, the closing section of this volume.
As Renée Loth has observed in the Boston Globe, "Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observations of the natural world . . . She teaches us the profound act of paying attention."
(When New and Selected Poems, Volume One was originally pu...)
When New and Selected Poems, Volume One was originally published in 1992, Mary Oliver was awarded the National Book Award. In the fourteen years since its initial appearance it has become one of the best-selling volumes of poetry in the country. This collection features thirty poems published only in this volume as well as selections from the poet's first eight books.
Mary Oliver's perceptive, brilliantly crafted poems about the natural landscape and the fundamental questions of life and death have won high praise from critics and readers alike. "Do you love this world?" she interrupts a poem about peonies to ask the reader. "Do you cherish your humble and silky life?" She makes us see the extraordinary in our everyday lives, how something as common as light can be "an invitation/to happiness,/and that happiness,/when it's done right,/is a kind of holiness,/palpable and redemptive." She illuminates how a near miss with an alligator can be the catalyst for seeing the world "as if for the second time/the way it really is." Oliver's passionate demonstrations of delight are powerful reminders of the bond between every individual, all living things, and the natural world.
(In her fourth volume of poetry, Twelve Moons, Pulitzer Pr...)
In her fourth volume of poetry, Twelve Moons, Pulitzer Prize-winning Mary Oliver continues to explore the alluring, yet well-nigh inaccessible kingdoms of nature and human relationships, and man's profound, persistent desire for a joyous union with them. these vibrant, magical poems pulse with an aching awareness of nature's unaffected beauty. Her absorbing intimate vision leads us into the natural and human kingdoms we only fleetingly grasp.
Mary Oliver, American Poet. Recipient Shelley Memorial award, 1970, Alice Fay di Castagnola award, 1973, Cleveland Arts prize for literature, 1979, Achievement award American Academy and Institute Arts and Letters, 1983, Pulitzer prize for poetry, 1984, Christopher award, 1991, L.L. Winship award, 1991, National Book award, 1992, Lannan award, 1998; National Endowment fellow, 1972-1973; Guggenheim fellow, 1980-1981.
Background
Oliver, Mary was born on September 10, 1935 in Maple Heights, Ohio, United States. Daughter of Edward William and Helen Mary (Vlasak) Oliver.
Education
Student, Ohio State University, 1955—1956. Student, Vassar College, 1956—1957.
Career
Chairman writing department, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, 1972-1973;
member writing committee, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, 1984;
Banister poet in residence, Sweet Briar College, 1991-1995. William Blackburn visiting professor creative writing Duke U., 1995. Catharine Osgood Foster professor Bennington College, since 1996.
Achievements
Mary Oliver has been listed as a noteworthy poet by Marquis Who's Who.
Recipient Shelley Memorial award, 1970, Alice Fay di Castagnola award, 1973, Cleveland Arts prize for literature, 1979, Achievement award American Academy and Institute Arts and Letters, 1983, Pulitzer prize for poetry, 1984, Christopher award, 1991, L.L. Winship award, 1991, National Book award, 1992, Lannan award, 1998. National Endowment fellow, 1972-1973. Guggenheim fellow, 1980-1981.
Recipient Shelley Memorial award, 1970, Alice Fay di Castagnola award, 1973, Cleveland Arts prize for literature, 1979, Achievement award American Academy and Institute Arts and Letters, 1983, Pulitzer prize for poetry, 1984, Christopher award, 1991, L.L. Winship award, 1991, National Book award, 1992, Lannan award, 1998. National Endowment fellow, 1972-1973. Guggenheim fellow, 1980-1981.
