Celebrating Mary Oliver
Some have said that Mary Oliver is America’s best loved living woman poet. She is said to be America’s best selling living poet. Lines from at least two of her poems have become touchstones of our culture. From The Journey, which is so famous it shows up on the first page of Google for the words “the journey”:
“Determined to do the only thing you could do– determined to save the only life you can save.”
Canadian Geese in Flight
And, from Wild Geese, which is the first listing in Google for “wild geese” showing how prominently these words are connected to Mary Oliver: “You do not have to be good” and “You just have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” And the last lines of the poem:
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
Both of these poems express a genuinely profound compassion towards human suffering; towards the ache of worthiness, the inescapable drive to be deemed good; and the unforgiving need to belong. She does this all the while calling out to us, just like her wild geese, the simple stunning beauty of our natural earth.
Which woman poet’s voice speaks to you most deeply? Would you like to write a post about your favorite famous woman poet?
Category: Poetry by Women Poets, Women Writing Poetry
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For me, it’s Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. The evocative language always stays with me whenever I read the poetry of both these women.
Dickinson’s poem below and Plath’s poem ‘Child’ are just a couple of examples I have off the top of my head which I always think of because of the impact their writing has had on my life..
HEAVEN is what I cannot reach!
The apple on the tree,
Provided it do hopeless hang,
That “heaven” is, to me.
The color on the cruising cloud,
The interdicted ground
Behind the hill, the house behind,—
There Paradise is found!
Plath- ‘Child’
Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.
I want to fill it with color and ducks,
The zoo of the new
Whose name you meditate —
April snowdrop, Indian pipe,
Little
Stalk without wrinkle,
Pool in which images
Should be grand and classical
Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star.
Definitely Emily Dickinson. I haven’t kept up with modern poets very much, but Dickinson’s writing has spoken to me since I ran across “I’m Nobody” in 9th grade English class. She is one of two poets that I learned about in school that I went home and looked up more things they’d written (the other was Robert Pinsky, the only modern poet I really know).
She is one of my favorite poets. Amazing!
Mary Oliver’s work is an enduring song in American poetry. Her words have gotten me through some dark walks.
Mary Oliver has touched my life with her poetry in numerous ways over the years. The Journey was the first poem I read of hers and I copied and pasted it into my journal and shared it with all my friends.
Two other favorites are When Death Comes “I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.” and Some Questions You Might Ask “Is the soul solid like iron? Or is it tender and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the beak of an owl?”
No matter my state of mind, I can always lose myself in Mary’s poetry…and find myself again as well.
Thank you so much for posting the names of the poems and a sample line from each that moves you. That’s the detail someone might need to then go look up the poem!
It’s fantastic that The Journey has moved so uncountably many people.