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Secular or Eclectic
Contemporary

About Mary Oliver

Timeline (1935 - )

Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry

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Original Language
English

Mindful

Themes
  Birth, Rebirth
  Bliss
  Garden
  Light
  Smile

 

Recommended Books

American Primitive, by Mary Oliver
Blue Iris: Poems and Essays, by Mary Oliver
Blue Pastures, by Mary Oliver
Dream Work, by Mary Oliver
God of Dirt: Mary Oliver and the Other Book of God, by Thomas W. Mann

More >>

Every day
     I see or hear
          something
               that more or less

kills me
     with delight,
          that leaves me
               like a needle

in the haystack
     of light.
          It was what I was born for -
               to look, to listen,

to lose myself
     inside this soft world -
          to instruct myself
               over and over

in joy,
     and acclamation.
          Nor am I talking
               about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
     the very extravagant -
          but of the ordinary,
               the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
     Oh, good scholar,
          I say to myself,
               how can you help

but grow wise
     with such teachings
          as these -
               the untrimmable light

of the world,
     the ocean's shine,
          the prayers that are made
               out of grass?

 

 

-- from Why I Wake Early, by Mary Oliver

Amazon.com

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.