Barley Literate: The art of Mary Oliver (part 2)

Mary Oliver (b. 1935)

She’s an American poet, the way Walt Whitman would mean “American poet.”

Mary Oliver’s poetry stops me from doing other things, while I read her tender words….

I imagine you will find, as I did, that this example makes the sun seem very sufficient.

An excerpt from “The Sun”:

“. . . do you think there is anywhere, in any language,

a word billowing enough

for the pleasure

that fills you,

as the sun

reaches out,

as it warms you

as you stand there,

empty-handed—

or have you too

turned from this world—

or have you too

gone crazy

for power,

for things?”

From "The Sun" by Mary Oliver, from New and Selected Poems: Volume One. © Beacon Press, 2004.

Posted on A Year Of Being Here website:

Barley Literate