A slim, single-sitting read. Some favorite lines:"His subject was his true self, which of course was as dark and secret as anyone else's, and it was too hard--perhaps you understand--to speak or to sing it to anything or anyone but the sky." -from "The Mockingbird""Truly I try to be good but sometimes a person just has to break out and act like the wild and springy thing one used to be. It's impossible not to remember wild and want it back." -from "Green, Green Is My Sister's House""Not enough is a poor life. But too much is, well, too much. Imagine Verdi or Mahler every day, all day. It would exhaust anyone." -from "In Our Woods, Sometimes A Rare Music""The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth,it can lie down like silk breathingor toss havoc shoreward; it can givegifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, frothlike an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it cansweet- entirely. As I can too,and so, no doubt, can you, and you." -"The Poet Compares Human Nature To The Ocean From Which We Came" I love Mary Oliver. She is the poet I always recommend to people who don't normally read poetry, because her words are so accessible and touch, in simple language, some of the most profound human experiences. I did not find any of that in this collection. Perhaps it is because the style is so consistent, and the content recycled, that there really was nothing new in it for me-- just reiterations of her previous poems. Her poems about Percy, which usually border playfulness and depth successfully, were oversentimental. And the layout of the book was irritating; every poem started on the right page, so half the book was blank. I'll revisit some of her older works.
Do You like book A Thousand Mornings (2012)?
this is the first time I've read a collection of her poems ... in just one sitting, too. beautiful.
—dhinchey
One of those books I don't want to take back to the library. Time to buy a copy.
—denden
Recommended by Stephanie, Circulation Department
—sami
