#maryoliver — Public Fediverse posts

When I Am Among Trees by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It's simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
#poetry #MaryOliver

Mary Oliver on the Measure of a Life Well Lived and How to Magnify Your Aliveness

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/05/03/mary-oliver-blue-horses-fourth-sign-of-the-zodiac/

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.
-- Mary Oliver

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MaryOliver #Writing

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Flowers #Junkyard #Minnesota

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.
-- Mary Oliver

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MaryOliver #Writing

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Flowers #Junkyard #Minnesota

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.
-- Mary Oliver

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MaryOliver #Writing

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Flowers #Junkyard #Minnesota

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.
-- Mary Oliver

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MaryOliver #Writing

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Flowers #Junkyard #Minnesota

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.
-- Mary Oliver

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MaryOliver #Writing

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Flowers #Junkyard #Minnesota

Mary Oliver’s Advice on Writing

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/04/17/mary-oliver-advice-on-writing/

Why I Gave Mary Oliver to My Best Friend

This weekend my best friend celebrated her fifty-fifth birthday. Dave, her husband, reached out to my hubby and I to invite us over for a spontaneous pizza party at the new artsy antique shop they are hoping to open soon. It is a cute place which will soon come to beautiful life under her creative vision – with a little help from her hubby and friends, I have no doubt. Meanwhile I scurried out to find the perfect gift…

I wanted to get her something like a novel about someone opening an antique shop, maybe a murder mystery? Or some really good tea. She loves tea, or maybe a fun wine glass, or you know – shopping for a friend is as fun as shopping for yourself. But my friend might be just as happy with a power tool as a poetry book- she’s quite the versatile one, she is!

But it is National Poetry Month. And it just so happens as I came around the aisle of books at my local bookstore there before my eyes on the end display was the best collection of poetry I have ever read. Now it’s important you understand why Mary Oliver is my favorite poet, because…I don’t find many poets to be so wonderfully infused with the essence of beauty quite the way her words are for me. Is all I know is we love what we love. Mary Oliver’s poems are a treasure.

I have read a number of her works, as well as her A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry which I enjoyed with a group of poets at the local library a number of years back. It was probably then when I “met” Mary. The fact that her words were approachable, and simple, yet profound caused me to see all that poetry could be. I came late to the Pulitzer Prize winning author, so it seems to be with much in my life. Even my own writing.

So what does any good friend (who also happens to write a bit of poetry herself) do but grab that book and carry it joyfully to the register at the local bookstore, thinking this is the best gift ever! Of course I think I could have given a power tool, and she would have loved that too, but hey, this is how I roll!

When I got home from the party, I immediatly went in search of my copy of Devotions, that old familiar friend. I opened to all the dog-eared pages and jumped into bed and soon was off sleeping, dreaming of rivers, wild geese, dog songs and blue horses. It is one of my very favorite poetry collections of all time.

I decided to write a spontaneous poem for Mary. However, please note…this was just yesterday, and I am sure it’s not so great, but I hope you like it anyway. Still needs tweaking, but here is where we are for now!

Mary Oliver and Me

Who introduced me to the poet?
I wish I could recall, but no matter
the words breathe life

into my heart, shamelessly expounding
on the beauty and shadow of things,
of the sea mouse, and Lucretius

in the way no explanation is given
to the blue horses about what war is
how no creature escapes the eye, or heart

of the one who dares to ask,
what will you do with
your one wild and precious life?

overhead, the wild geese fly-
and it is a serious thing to be alive
on this fresh morning in the broken world.

What can I tell you about Mary?
I have never met her, but I believe my heart
is fuller for the words she left behind.

###

Do you have a favorite poet? Write a poem about them if you dare. We are almost halfway through April, tell me, what will you do with your one wild and wonderful April? Channeling Mary O today!

Keep writing (even if no one else reads your words),

Enthusiastically, Dawn

Why I Gave Mary Oliver to My Best Friend

This weekend my best friend celebrated her fifty-fifth birthday. Dave, her husband, reached out to my hubby and I to invite us over for a spontaneous pizza party at the new artsy antique shop they are hoping to open soon. It is a cute place which will soon come to beautiful life under her creative vision – with a little help from her hubby and friends, I have no doubt. Meanwhile I scurried out to find the perfect gift…

I wanted to get her something like a novel about someone opening an antique shop, maybe a murder mystery? Or some really good tea. She loves tea, or maybe a fun wine glass, or you know – shopping for a friend is as fun as shopping for yourself. But my friend might be just as happy with a power tool as a poetry book- she’s quite the versatile one, she is!

But it is National Poetry Month. And it just so happens as I came around the aisle of books at my local bookstore there before my eyes on the end display was the best collection of poetry I have ever read. Now it’s important you understand why Mary Oliver is my favorite poet, because…I don’t find many poets to be so wonderfully infused with the essence of beauty quite the way her words are for me. Is all I know is we love what we love. Mary Oliver’s poems are a treasure.

I have read a number of her works, as well as her A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry which I enjoyed with a group of poets at the local library a number of years back. It was probably then when I “met” Mary. The fact that her words were approachable, and simple, yet profound caused me to see all that poetry could be. I came late to the Pulitzer Prize winning author, so it seems to be with much in my life. Even my own writing.

So what does any good friend (who also happens to write a bit of poetry herself) do but grab that book and carry it joyfully to the register at the local bookstore, thinking this is the best gift ever! Of course I think I could have given a power tool, and she would have loved that too, but hey, this is how I roll!

When I got home from the party, I immediatly went in search of my copy of Devotions, that old familiar friend. I opened to all the dog-eared pages and jumped into bed and soon was off sleeping, dreaming of rivers, wild geese, dog songs and blue horses. It is one of my very favorite poetry collections of all time.

I decided to write a spontaneous poem for Mary. However, please note…this was just yesterday, and I am sure it’s not so great, but I hope you like it anyway. Still needs tweaking, but here is where we are for now!

Mary Oliver and Me

Who introduced me to the poet?
I wish I could recall, but no matter
the words breathe life

into my heart, shamelessly expounding
on the beauty and shadow of things,
of the sea mouse, and Lucretius

in the way no explanation is given
to the blue horses about what war is
how no creature escapes the eye, or heart

of the one who dares to ask,
what will you do with
your one wild and precious life?

overhead, the wild geese fly-
and it is a serious thing to be alive
on this fresh morning in the broken world.

What can I tell you about Mary?
I have never met her, but I believe my heart
is fuller for the words she left behind.

###

Do you have a favorite poet? Write a poem about them if you dare. We are almost halfway through April, tell me, what will you do with your one wild and wonderful April? Channeling Mary O today!

Keep writing (even if no one else reads your words),

Enthusiastically, Dawn

Why I Gave Mary Oliver to My Best Friend

This weekend my best friend celebrated her fifty-fifth birthday. Dave, her husband, reached out to my hubby and I to invite us over for a spontaneous pizza party at the new artsy antique shop they are hoping to open soon. It is a cute place which will soon come to beautiful life under her creative vision – with a little help from her hubby and friends, I have no doubt. Meanwhile I scurried out to find the perfect gift…

I wanted to get her something like a novel about someone opening an antique shop, maybe a murder mystery? Or some really good tea. She loves tea, or maybe a fun wine glass, or you know – shopping for a friend is as fun as shopping for yourself. But my friend might be just as happy with a power tool as a poetry book- she’s quite the versatile one, she is!

But it is National Poetry Month. And it just so happens as I came around the aisle of books at my local bookstore there before my eyes on the end display was the best collection of poetry I have ever read. Now it’s important you understand why Mary Oliver is my favorite poet, because…I don’t find many poets to be so wonderfully infused with the essence of beauty quite the way her words are for me. Is all I know is we love what we love. Mary Oliver’s poems are a treasure.

I have read a number of her works, as well as her A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry which I enjoyed with a group of poets at the local library a number of years back. It was probably then when I “met” Mary. The fact that her words were approachable, and simple, yet profound caused me to see all that poetry could be. I came late to the Pulitzer Prize winning author, so it seems to be with much in my life. Even my own writing.

So what does any good friend (who also happens to write a bit of poetry herself) do but grab that book and carry it joyfully to the register at the local bookstore, thinking this is the best gift ever! Of course I think I could have given a power tool, and she would have loved that too, but hey, this is how I roll!

When I got home from the party, I immediatly went in search of my copy of Devotions, that old familiar friend. I opened to all the dog-eared pages and jumped into bed and soon was off sleeping, dreaming of rivers, wild geese, dog songs and blue horses. It is one of my very favorite poetry collections of all time.

I decided to write a spontaneous poem for Mary. However, please note…this was just yesterday, and I am sure it’s not so great, but I hope you like it anyway. Still needs tweaking, but here is where we are for now!

Mary Oliver and Me

Who introduced me to the poet?
I wish I could recall, but no matter
the words breathe life

into my heart, shamelessly expounding
on the beauty and shadow of things,
of the sea mouse, and Lucretius

in the way no explanation is given
to the blue horses about what war is
how no creature escapes the eye, or heart

of the one who dares to ask,
what will you do with
your one wild and precious life?

overhead, the wild geese fly-
and it is a serious thing to be alive
on this fresh morning in the broken world.

What can I tell you about Mary?
I have never met her, but I believe my heart
is fuller for the words she left behind.

###

Do you have a favorite poet? Write a poem about them if you dare. We are almost halfway through April, tell me, what will you do with your one wild and wonderful April? Channeling Mary O today!

Keep writing (even if no one else reads your words),

Enthusiastically, Dawn

A Heron’s Antidote to Fear of Death

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/04/07/heron-divination/

Dear Lovely Peeps, for anyone who might appreciate this #Today

Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m travelling
a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.

From A Thousand Mornings, #Poems by #MaryOliver, p. 23
Published by Penguin Books 2013
© 2012 by NW Orchard LLC #Poetry

“First, though, I want to step out into some
fresh morning and look around and hear myself
crying out: “The house of money is falling!
The house of money is falling! The weeds are
rising! The weeds are rising!” #MaryOliver #poetry

One of Mary Oliver's most famous lines is "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

I see it quoted all the time out of context, usually on insipid inspo posts about living life to the fullest.

Every so often, I like to go back and re-read the poem it's from, The Summer Day. The meaning of a line can change quite a bit when you read it in context.

#MaryOliver #poetry #mindfulness

I love McKay.
#books #maryoliver #elisemaclay #poetry

The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Creativity and Time

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/02/25/mary-oliver-upstream-creativity-power-time/

Mary Oliver is my all time favourite poet. Isn't this magic? (alt text too) #maryoliver #dogsongs #poetry #poem

Mary Oliver on What Attention Really Means and Her Moving Elegy for Her Soul Mate

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/02/17/mary-oliver-molly-malone-cook-our-world/

An excerpt from "Evidence" by Mary Oliver:

I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in
singing, especially when singing is not necessarily
prescribed.

https://yearsrisingmaryoliver.blogspot.com/2011/02/evidence.html

#poetry #poem #poems #TodaysPoem #PoemADay #MaryOliver #PoetryOfPresence

The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/01/29/mary-oliver-upstream-creativity-power-time/

This Mary Oliver poem 'Sleeping In The Forest' just inspires me SO much. I want to paint it somehow. #maryoliver #poetry #ithoughttheearthrememberedme #sleepingintheforest

Knowing and not knowing at conferences through the lens of Mary Oliver’s poetry, where metrics meet wonder, connection, and the intangible

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2024/12/knowing

#eventprofs #metrics #wonder #knowing #MaryOliver #EventDesign #poetry #owl

Caught the #maryoliver reference ya made there, #Maddow
Nice
#asummerday #poetry
#msnow

Oh Mary... you truly made magic ❤️ #poetry #maryoliver #nature #naturepoetry #writing #poet

If you've never read Mary Oliver's poem "Of the Empire" you should. It's a heartbreaker.

https://yearsrisingmaryoliver.blogspot.com/2010/11/of-empire-november-14-2010.html

#poetry #poem #poems #TodaysPoem #MaryOliver #mpire #colonialism #PoetryOfPolitics

Knowing and not knowing at conferences through the lens of Mary Oliver’s poetry, where metrics meet wonder, connection, and the intangible

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2024/12/knowing

#eventprofs #metrics #wonder #knowing #MaryOliver #EventDesign #poetry #owl

#MaryOliver #Quote #Joy

My work is loving the world

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird – 
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

My Work is Loving the World, by Mary Oliver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAYb8ZyjzD0

#love #MaryOliver #nature

Knowing and not knowing at conferences through the lens of Mary Oliver’s poetry, where metrics meet wonder, connection, and the intangible

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2024/12/knowing

#eventprofs #metrics #wonder #knowing #MaryOliver #EventDesign #poetry #owl

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.
-- Mary Oliver

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MaryOliver #Writing

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Canyonlands #Utah

#MaryOliver #Quote #Poetry

Knowing and not knowing at conferences through the lens of Mary Oliver’s poetry, where metrics meet wonder, connection, and the intangible

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/event-design/2024/12/knowing

#eventprofs #metrics #wonder #knowing #MaryOliver #EventDesign #poetry #owl

Love this #poem ❤️

Who made the #world?
Who made the #swan, and the black #bear?
Who made the #grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating #sugar out of my #hand,
who is moving her #jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated #eyes.
Now she lifts her pale #forearms and thoroughly washes her #face.
Now she snaps her #wings open, and floats away.

1/2

#MaryOliver #TheSummerDay

Grief and joy go hand in hand. Having people around us can help us to feel our emotions more fully. Wishing you a spot of joy today in the midst of everything.

#maryoliver #climategrief #goodgriefnetwork #polycrisis #metacrisis #climatecrisis #climategriefsupport

#maryoliver #poetry #metacrisis #apocaloptimism #resilience #joy

“And speaking of stones, what about
The little ones you can
Hold in your hands, their heartbeats
So secret, so hidden it may take years
Before, finally, you hear them?”

-Mary Oliver

#poetry #rocks #Naturephotography #MaryOliver #shells #PayingAttention #hearts

Hard poem, but reflects how I feel these days…

Acid - #MaryOliver

In Jakarta,

among the venders

of #flowers and soft drinks,

I saw a child
with a hideous mouth,

#begging,

and I knew the #wound was made

for a way to stay alive.

What I gave him

wouldn’t keep a dog alive.

What he gave me

from the brown coin

of his sweating face

was a look of #cunning.

I carry it

like a bead of acid

to remember how,

once in a while,

you can creep out of your own life

and become someone else—

an #explosion

in that nest of wires

we call the #imagination.

I will never see him

again, I suppose.

But what of this rag,

this shadow

flung like a boy’s body

into the walls

of my mind, bleeding

their sour taste—

#insult and #anger,

the great movers?

#APoemADay #MaryOliver #love #poetry

Stillness. 

One of the doors

Into the temple. 

-Mary Oliver

#autumm #trees #water #breathe #MaryOliver #LandscapePhotography
#StormKing #AndyGoldsworthy

The Linen of Words
All day I workwith the linen of wordsand the pins of punctuationall day I hang outover the deskgrinding my teethstaring.Then I sleep.— Mary Oliver, Work

Life is change, and our why pivots with it. We may channel this into creative work and find out something about ourselves in the process. One more day blessed with the opportunity to
https://alexandersmap.com/2024/06/14/the-linen-of-words/
#Discovery #Poetry #Productivity #Writing #MaryOliver #TheGreatConversation

The Linen of Words
All day I workwith the linen of wordsand the pins of punctuationall day I hang outover the deskgrinding my teethstaring.Then I sleep.— Mary Oliver, Work

Life is change, and our why pivots with it. We may channel this into creative work and find out something about ourselves in the process. One more day blessed with the opportunity to
https://alexandersmap.com/2024/06/14/the-linen-of-words/
#Discovery #Poetry #Productivity #Writing #MaryOliver #TheGreatConversation

The Linen of Words
All day I workwith the linen of wordsand the pins of punctuationall day I hang outover the deskgrinding my teethstaring.Then I sleep.— Mary Oliver, Work

Life is change, and our why pivots with it. We may channel this into creative work and find out something about ourselves in the process. One more day blessed with the opportunity to
https://alexandersmap.com/2024/06/14/the-linen-of-words/
#Discovery #Poetry #Productivity #Writing #MaryOliver #TheGreatConversation

Over de film #MariaMontessori, #MaryOliver, poëzieonderwijs en waarom ik me schaam voor een goed gedicht.

https://www.joostbaars.nl/post/weet-je-wat-het-is-2

#poezie
#poëzie
#gedichten
#schrijven
#dichterschap
#onderwijs
#WeetJeWatHetIs
#film
#cinema

Coming this Sunday: 57 fiber vendors expected at Wayland Farm Fiber Day; a celebration of poet Mary Oliver in Saxonville.
https://www.district2framingham.com/posts/2024-03-01-farm-fiber-day-wayland/

#Wayland #WaylandMA #yarn #Framingham #Saxonville #MaryOliver

Beautiful collection of poems about winter and frost ferns and icelight, compiled by Freya Rohn, The Ariadne Archive.

https://freyarohn.substack.com/p/in-the-icelight?publication_id=248199&post_id=140265324&isFreemail=true&r=2t69m

#poetry #TodaysPoem #PoemADay #poem #winter #FreyaRohn #MaryOliver #OssipMandelstam #DavidMorley #WilfredCampbell #PålHelgeHaugen #MatsuoBasho #TuFu

Kotaku: Final Fantasy XVI’s Jill Should Be More Than Pretty https://kotaku.com/ff16-jill-final-fantasy-xvi-square-enix-re4-ashley-1850587747 #gaming #tech #kotaku #patriciahernandez #anitasarkeesian #childrensmanga #residentevil4 #yukoyamaguchi #jillwarrick #squareenix #hellokitty #maryoliver #jillkoch #ashley #kotaku #sanrio #clive #peach #jill #i

Kotaku: Final Fantasy XVI’s Jill Should Be More Than Pretty https://kotaku.com/ff16-jill-final-fantasy-xvi-square-enix-re4-ashley-1850587747 #gaming #tech #kotaku #patriciahernandez #anitasarkeesian #childrensmanga #residentevil4 #yukoyamaguchi #jillwarrick #squareenix #hellokitty #maryoliver #jillkoch #ashley #kotaku #sanrio #clive #peach #jill #i

Kotaku: Final Fantasy XVI’s Jill Should Be More Than Pretty https://kotaku.com/ff16-jill-final-fantasy-xvi-square-enix-re4-ashley-1850587747 #gaming #tech #kotaku #patriciahernandez #anitasarkeesian #childrensmanga #residentevil4 #yukoyamaguchi #jillwarrick #squareenix #hellokitty #maryoliver #jillkoch #ashley #kotaku #sanrio #clive #peach #jill #i

Kotaku: Final Fantasy XVI’s Jill Should Be More Than Pretty https://kotaku.com/ff16-jill-final-fantasy-xvi-square-enix-re4-ashley-1850587747 #gaming #tech #kotaku #patriciahernandez #anitasarkeesian #childrensmanga #residentevil4 #yukoyamaguchi #jillwarrick #squareenix #hellokitty #maryoliver #jillkoch #ashley #kotaku #sanrio #clive #peach #jill #i