Mary Oliver

The poet who helped us stay amazed

[Image: RedCharlie - Unsplash]

That is the title of the article in the New Yorker about this famous American poet who died in January this year and who has been described by The New York Times as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet”.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/mary-oliver-helped-us-stay-amazed

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

A question Mary asks that I suspect many of us including myself, would struggle to answer, but one well worth pondering on.

Mary is a favourite poet of many people. She has said that writing was a way of escaping a dysfunctional family, of creating a world of her own, one that has brought much pleasure to many over the years. A great deal of her poetry is about the natural world with which she had a great affinity from a very early age. She has won an array of awards and published widely. Below is a selection of her more recent poetry collections.

• 2004 Why I Wake Early: New Poems Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6879-3
• 2004 Blue Iris: Poems and Essays Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6882-3
• 2004 Wild geese: selected poems, Bloodaxe, ISBN 978-1-85224-628-0
• 2005 New and Selected Poems, volume two Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6886-1
• 2005 At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver (audio cd)
• 2006 Thirst: Poems (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6896-0
• 2007 Our World with photographs by Molly Malone Cook, Beacon (Boston, MA)
• 2008 The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays, Beacon Press, ISBN 978-0-8070-6884-7
• 2008 Red Bird Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6892-2
• 2009 Evidence Beacon (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6898-4
• 2010 Swan: Poems and Prose Poems (Boston, MA) ISBN 978-0-8070-6899-1
• 2012 A Thousand Mornings Penguin (New York, NY) ISBN 978-1-59420-477-7
• 2013 Dog Songs Penguin Press (New York, NY) ISBN 978-1-59420-478-4
• 2014 Blue Horses Penguin Press (New York, NY) ISBN 978-1-59420-479-1
• 2015 Felicity Penguin Press (New York, NY) ISBN 978-1-59420-676-4
• 2017 Devotions The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver Penguin Press (New York, NY) ISBN 978-0-399-56324-9