What do you think?
Rate this book
A Thousand Mornings: Poems
Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Readers' Favorite Poetry (2012)In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. In these pages, Oliver shares the wonder of dawn, the grace of animals, and the transformative power of attention. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her adored dog, Percy, she is ever patient in her observations and open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments.
Our most precious chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver opens our eyes to the nature within, to its wild and its quiet. With startling clarity, humor, and kindness, A Thousand Mornings explores the mysteries of our daily experience.
Our most precious chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver opens our eyes to the nature within, to its wild and its quiet. With startling clarity, humor, and kindness, A Thousand Mornings explores the mysteries of our daily experience.
82 pages, Hardcover
First published October 11, 2012
1369 people are currently reading
97894 people want to read
About the author
Mary Oliver
106 books8,337 followersMary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,911 reviews
January 15, 2024
Every time I read a Mary Oliver poetry collection I want to throw my phone in the ocean and live off the fatta the lan' (à la Lenny in Of Mice and Men). If you need me I will be milking a goat or climbing a tree.
January 5, 2025
Early one morning, the poet Mary Oliver walked down to the water and, looking out at the waves breaking upon the shoreline and thought ‘Oh, I am miserable… what should I do?’ The waves continued crashing. Waves like our hopes and dreams, our loves, our lives, suddenly dashed upon the sand. ‘And the sea says,’ Oliver tells us, ‘in its lovely voice: Excuse me, I have work to do.’
So begins Oliver’s 2012 collection, A Thousand Mornings, a deeply probing and gorgeous collection on living in the world and aging through it, on solitude amid such a vastness but also on the connections that get us through, all delivered with a humble acceptance that instills an endearing empowerment into her poems and into the reader. Looking back on her life at the age of 76, living beyond the loss of her partner, Molly Malone Cook, beyond the loss of her beloved dog, Percy, beyond all the losses and sorrows that fill any lifetime, Oliver’s poems don’t read as lamenting the loss or asking what has gone from me, but asking ‘am I living enough?’ Because, as the sea reminds her, the world keeps going and there is work do be done. And for Oliver, that work of gorgeous poetry still had time enough for a few more to share.
Three Things to Remember
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules.
This collection holds a special place in my heart. Around the time it was released I started a seasonal position at a Barnes and Noble (I would work there for several years as a keyholder before moving on) and on our first few days of work they had me stand in the front of the store and demonstrate the newest Nook device as part of our holiday offerings. I had never used a tablet before and was told to just play around with it and read on it to show it off and spent that first weekend reading A Thousand Mornings (it was pre-loaded on the device) between customers, thrilled to be working in a bookstore and thrilled with how gorgeous these poems were. Oliver reminds us what it is to be human in the most tender of ways. Take this poem for instance:
Poem of the One World
This morning
the beautiful white heron
was floating along above the water
and then into the sky of this
the one world
we all belong to
where everything
sooner or later
is a part of everything else
which thought made me feel
for a little while
quite beautiful myself.
Like the final lines state, to read a beautiful Mary Oliver is to feel beautiful oneself. To take those words inside you and let them purify your weary heart, dry your tears, remind you that even when you are miserable and wondering what to do, there is still work to be done and you can rise to the challenge. Later, in The Poet Compares Human Nature to the Ocean From Which We Came, she speaks of the sea again:
The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth,
it can lie down like silk breathing
or toss havoc shoreward; it can give
gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth
like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can
sweet-talk entirely. As I can too,
and so, no doubt, can you, and you.
As I can too, and so, no doubt, can you, and you. Mary Oliver telling you that you, too, are an amazing sea of a person full of gifts is the poetry version of Mr. Rogers looking at your toddler self through a television screen and telling you that you are special, too. I suppose its why Oliver is always a great choice of a poet when going through hard times—her poems help shoulder the burden and suddenly the strain is a reminder that though life is hard, loss is hard, love is hard, and sorrows are always lurking to trip us along the way, it is, ultimately, worth the journey for the beauty within it all.
'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.'
While we see in these poems how one should be good to oneself and each other, Oliver reminds us too that the Earth is a gift and one we must remember to care for. Her often quoted line, 'What will you do with your one wild and precious life?' is often passed as a question to open a vastness of possibilities to fill yet, in context, that question is already answered within the poem that Oliver would choose to walk through nature and observe and exist within it. Her poems remind us that the great stage of existence occurs on this small planet and how we must try to live in symbiosis because it is not just a backdrop but a mirror into ourselves as well. She has long perfected the art of introspection through metaphorical natural observation and through her prose we feel ourselves as inseparable from the natural world as our minds from our bodies. And that is why we must care for it:
'How perfect to be aboard a ship with
maybe a hundred years still in my pocket.
But it's late, for all of us,
and in truth the only ship there is
is the ship we are all on
burning the world as we go.'
While A Thousand Mornings may not be Oliver's strongest single volume work it is by no means lacking and simply has Oliver's long legacy of poetic brilliance to compare with. A series of gorgeous poems that look inward as much as outward, that helps us shoulder our pains, that asks us not of what we have lost but what we can still become, that asks 'Have I lived enough? / Have I loved enough?...Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude? / Have I endured loneliness with grace?' and with these poems we can believe, yes, yes I can achieve these things. Thank you, Mary Oliver, your work has always been a blessing.
4.5/5
So begins Oliver’s 2012 collection, A Thousand Mornings, a deeply probing and gorgeous collection on living in the world and aging through it, on solitude amid such a vastness but also on the connections that get us through, all delivered with a humble acceptance that instills an endearing empowerment into her poems and into the reader. Looking back on her life at the age of 76, living beyond the loss of her partner, Molly Malone Cook, beyond the loss of her beloved dog, Percy, beyond all the losses and sorrows that fill any lifetime, Oliver’s poems don’t read as lamenting the loss or asking what has gone from me, but asking ‘am I living enough?’ Because, as the sea reminds her, the world keeps going and there is work do be done. And for Oliver, that work of gorgeous poetry still had time enough for a few more to share.
Three Things to Remember
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules.
This collection holds a special place in my heart. Around the time it was released I started a seasonal position at a Barnes and Noble (I would work there for several years as a keyholder before moving on) and on our first few days of work they had me stand in the front of the store and demonstrate the newest Nook device as part of our holiday offerings. I had never used a tablet before and was told to just play around with it and read on it to show it off and spent that first weekend reading A Thousand Mornings (it was pre-loaded on the device) between customers, thrilled to be working in a bookstore and thrilled with how gorgeous these poems were. Oliver reminds us what it is to be human in the most tender of ways. Take this poem for instance:
Poem of the One World
This morning
the beautiful white heron
was floating along above the water
and then into the sky of this
the one world
we all belong to
where everything
sooner or later
is a part of everything else
which thought made me feel
for a little while
quite beautiful myself.
Like the final lines state, to read a beautiful Mary Oliver is to feel beautiful oneself. To take those words inside you and let them purify your weary heart, dry your tears, remind you that even when you are miserable and wondering what to do, there is still work to be done and you can rise to the challenge. Later, in The Poet Compares Human Nature to the Ocean From Which We Came, she speaks of the sea again:
The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth,
it can lie down like silk breathing
or toss havoc shoreward; it can give
gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth
like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can
sweet-talk entirely. As I can too,
and so, no doubt, can you, and you.
As I can too, and so, no doubt, can you, and you. Mary Oliver telling you that you, too, are an amazing sea of a person full of gifts is the poetry version of Mr. Rogers looking at your toddler self through a television screen and telling you that you are special, too. I suppose its why Oliver is always a great choice of a poet when going through hard times—her poems help shoulder the burden and suddenly the strain is a reminder that though life is hard, loss is hard, love is hard, and sorrows are always lurking to trip us along the way, it is, ultimately, worth the journey for the beauty within it all.
'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.'
While we see in these poems how one should be good to oneself and each other, Oliver reminds us too that the Earth is a gift and one we must remember to care for. Her often quoted line, 'What will you do with your one wild and precious life?' is often passed as a question to open a vastness of possibilities to fill yet, in context, that question is already answered within the poem that Oliver would choose to walk through nature and observe and exist within it. Her poems remind us that the great stage of existence occurs on this small planet and how we must try to live in symbiosis because it is not just a backdrop but a mirror into ourselves as well. She has long perfected the art of introspection through metaphorical natural observation and through her prose we feel ourselves as inseparable from the natural world as our minds from our bodies. And that is why we must care for it:
'How perfect to be aboard a ship with
maybe a hundred years still in my pocket.
But it's late, for all of us,
and in truth the only ship there is
is the ship we are all on
burning the world as we go.'
While A Thousand Mornings may not be Oliver's strongest single volume work it is by no means lacking and simply has Oliver's long legacy of poetic brilliance to compare with. A series of gorgeous poems that look inward as much as outward, that helps us shoulder our pains, that asks us not of what we have lost but what we can still become, that asks 'Have I lived enough? / Have I loved enough?...Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude? / Have I endured loneliness with grace?' and with these poems we can believe, yes, yes I can achieve these things. Thank you, Mary Oliver, your work has always been a blessing.
4.5/5
November 30, 2012
I am so new to poetry.
It used to bother me that the "rules" of poetry were not clear. I didn't like puzzles that did not have answers and I don't have a literary decoder ring. I was never very good at memorizing passages (I can't even repeat a joke back to you in a way that keeps the funny). There were some other feeble excuses - most of which have absolutely nothing to do with poetry - but all that matters is that I kept on not reading poetry.
*Quite a few years back, I happened upon my first Amy Hempel story and I was shocked awake. Words were powerful and messy and they hurt and healed like I didn't know was possible. The lesser lesson for me was how few words were needed to wield that power.
*I started watching Poetry Slams on Youtube. I don't know why. There were some people that were SO amazing to watch! The seemingly random structure of poetry on a page made complete sense when you heard poetry being read, felt, and breathed in those slams.
*I clicked my way through the internet to a blog that I had never been in a place to appreciate the other times I landed there. But this time, as I was reading, I felt like I was being squashed and pushed and pulled and my breathing changed and my brain sort of snapped. Those last movie scenes that the blogger described are still in my thoughts a year later. (http://www.amyturnsharp.com/blog/2011...) In 2012, she has been writing a poem a day and I am a loyal reader.
So, I am trying to read poetry now and this is one of the first books of poetry that I have finished. I guess I am trying to tell you that I have no idea if this is stellar poetry or not, but I really liked it. I want to write out some of these poems several times just so they are more real. I want them to be remembered like each of the every day moments the author is living in and championing.
It used to bother me that the "rules" of poetry were not clear. I didn't like puzzles that did not have answers and I don't have a literary decoder ring. I was never very good at memorizing passages (I can't even repeat a joke back to you in a way that keeps the funny). There were some other feeble excuses - most of which have absolutely nothing to do with poetry - but all that matters is that I kept on not reading poetry.
*Quite a few years back, I happened upon my first Amy Hempel story and I was shocked awake. Words were powerful and messy and they hurt and healed like I didn't know was possible. The lesser lesson for me was how few words were needed to wield that power.
*I started watching Poetry Slams on Youtube. I don't know why. There were some people that were SO amazing to watch! The seemingly random structure of poetry on a page made complete sense when you heard poetry being read, felt, and breathed in those slams.
*I clicked my way through the internet to a blog that I had never been in a place to appreciate the other times I landed there. But this time, as I was reading, I felt like I was being squashed and pushed and pulled and my breathing changed and my brain sort of snapped. Those last movie scenes that the blogger described are still in my thoughts a year later. (http://www.amyturnsharp.com/blog/2011...) In 2012, she has been writing a poem a day and I am a loyal reader.
So, I am trying to read poetry now and this is one of the first books of poetry that I have finished. I guess I am trying to tell you that I have no idea if this is stellar poetry or not, but I really liked it. I want to write out some of these poems several times just so they are more real. I want them to be remembered like each of the every day moments the author is living in and championing.
January 26, 2021
I arose early on 10-11-12 to check the status of my Amazon package containing puer ginger tea and 3 poetry books including A Thousand Mornings. The tracking told me it have been delivered. I found the package on the porch.
I proceeded to make the tea and to sit down in my chair to read the entire volume.
Mary thankfully takes us back to all manner of nature and her dog Percy and the black snake and forest birds and the living ocean waves. All the while commenting on being alive and exuding gratitude for life and the world.
What a treat to read a book on the first day it is available for sale in bookstores!
I proceeded to make the tea and to sit down in my chair to read the entire volume.
Mary thankfully takes us back to all manner of nature and her dog Percy and the black snake and forest birds and the living ocean waves. All the while commenting on being alive and exuding gratitude for life and the world.
What a treat to read a book on the first day it is available for sale in bookstores!
April 8, 2017
Beautiful title,
Dreamy cover,
The book is good too but it didn't touch the strings of my heart.
Anyways few lines from the book,
WAS IT NECESSARY TO DO IT?
I tell you that ant is very alive!
Look at how he fusses at being stepped on.
THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules.
Dreamy cover,
The book is good too but it didn't touch the strings of my heart.
Anyways few lines from the book,
WAS IT NECESSARY TO DO IT?
I tell you that ant is very alive!
Look at how he fusses at being stepped on.
THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules.
Read
September 2, 2021My friend recently told me that his favourite poet is Mary Oliver – I had read next to nothing by her, and blind-faith jumped into buying a set of her books. I will be going through those this week. This first volume is so simple, so suspended in time and space. I can hear the birds singing and feel my heart jump as she describes the slithering snake. How is she so brave in nature? Why does she blend in so smoothly? Whether discussing a hurricane or a mockingbird, it’s all true. I may not have known it was true 20 minutes before having read the poem, but as I read the words out loud, letting them hang in the air, I know her words to be true. They resonate. The sit right with me.
Here is my favourite poem from the collection – it’s called The Gardener:
Here is my favourite poem from the collection – it’s called The Gardener:
Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right action enough, have I
come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.
Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses.
February 1, 2014
I grieve for all the years I did not know Mary Oliver's poetry.
October 19, 2015
Apparently I am an insensitive, picky and mean person when it comes to contemporary poetry. I am somewhat sorry, because I would love to be able to appreciate it or at least to understand why other people love it so much. However, I seem incapable of wrapping my mind around it in the majority of the cases.
This one seemed completely uninspiring to me. Indeed, usually I favour simplicity in literature over complicated and long-winded sentences because I have the opinion that the truth is generally something simple. But in case of this collection simple felt like boring and dull to me. There were moments when words were used in a way that made me pause and reflect and then feel a tiny bit impressed about the author's conclusions regarding certain topics so it is not like it was completely awful, but for the most part I was not impressed.
And a part of me, a tiny one, feels bad for rating this one so low, but in comparison to other works both of poetry and prose I simply cannot make myself rate it higher despite the fact that this collection had some...likable parts.
Not my cup of tea, unfortunately.
September 21, 2015
Slim enough for me to read and review within an hour and a half, A Thousand Mornings will appeal to fans of poetry about nature. Mary Oliver intertwines themes of appreciating the present and her faith in God within her incisive observations about the environment. Her poetry conveys a wise and understated joy; though I tuned out while reading a few of her poems, others stood out with clear and artful messages. I will end this brief review with one of my favorite pieces, "I Go Down to the Shore":
Oliver has written a couple of my favorite poems, though none appear in this collection. Her authentic sensitivity makes her words shine, and I would recommend her work to fans who find meaning in the natural environment.
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall-
what should I do? and the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.
Oliver has written a couple of my favorite poems, though none appear in this collection. Her authentic sensitivity makes her words shine, and I would recommend her work to fans who find meaning in the natural environment.
January 29, 2019
A Thousand Mornings
All night my heart makes its way
however it can over the rough ground
of uncertainties, but only until night
meets and then is overwhelmed by
morning, the light deepening, the
wind easing and just waiting, as I
too wait (and when have I ever been
disappointed?) for the redbird to sing.
*******************************************
I Go Down to the Shore
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.
***********************************
Life Story
When I lived under the black oaks
I felt I was made of leaves.
When I lived by Little Sister Pond,
I dreamed I was the feather of the blue heron
left on the shore;
I was the pond lily, my root delicate as an artery,
my face like a star,
my happiness brimming.
Later I was the footsteps that follow the sea.
I knew the tides, I knew the ingredients of the wrack.
I knew the eider, the red-throated loon
with his uplifted beak and his smart eye.
I felt I was the tip of the wave,
the pearl of water on the eider’s glossy back.
No, there’s no escaping, nor would I want to escape
this outgo, this foot-loosening, this solution
to gravity and a single shape.
Now I am here, later I will be there.
I will be that small cloud, staring down at the water,
the one that stalls, that lifts its white legs, that
looks like a lamb.
*****************************************
Now when I walk outdoors, I will imagine Mary
caressing my face gently as the breeze
or singing, howling in the trees,
raining softly or pouring dramatically,
reviving the parched earth,
shining in the sun rays, lifting my body my soul.
Mary, thank you for sharing your gifts of seeing, of singing, of spirit.
All night my heart makes its way
however it can over the rough ground
of uncertainties, but only until night
meets and then is overwhelmed by
morning, the light deepening, the
wind easing and just waiting, as I
too wait (and when have I ever been
disappointed?) for the redbird to sing.
*******************************************
I Go Down to the Shore
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.
***********************************
Life Story
When I lived under the black oaks
I felt I was made of leaves.
When I lived by Little Sister Pond,
I dreamed I was the feather of the blue heron
left on the shore;
I was the pond lily, my root delicate as an artery,
my face like a star,
my happiness brimming.
Later I was the footsteps that follow the sea.
I knew the tides, I knew the ingredients of the wrack.
I knew the eider, the red-throated loon
with his uplifted beak and his smart eye.
I felt I was the tip of the wave,
the pearl of water on the eider’s glossy back.
No, there’s no escaping, nor would I want to escape
this outgo, this foot-loosening, this solution
to gravity and a single shape.
Now I am here, later I will be there.
I will be that small cloud, staring down at the water,
the one that stalls, that lifts its white legs, that
looks like a lamb.
*****************************************
Now when I walk outdoors, I will imagine Mary
caressing my face gently as the breeze
or singing, howling in the trees,
raining softly or pouring dramatically,
reviving the parched earth,
shining in the sun rays, lifting my body my soul.
Mary, thank you for sharing your gifts of seeing, of singing, of spirit.
January 6, 2019
For me her best work was presented in her book, America Primitive, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. I have loved her ever since, and have read a few of her other books, reviewing them on here. But this book was a disappointment, perhaps it was just that the subject matter didn't interest me.
Here is a small sample of a ypoem that I liked most in this book:
When I lived under the black
oaks
I felt I was made of leaves.
When I lived by the Little Sister
Pond,
I dreamed I was the feather of
the blue heron
left on the shore…
Here is a small sample of a ypoem that I liked most in this book:
When I lived under the black
oaks
I felt I was made of leaves.
When I lived by the Little Sister
Pond,
I dreamed I was the feather of
the blue heron
left on the shore…
January 20, 2023
I loved Wild Geese as soon as I read it. Mary Oliver is an amazing poet and I was keen to read some of her work. There's something about it that reminds me of all the safety in the world, the joys and something very important to me: slow living. This poetry collection was nothing short of amazing. I read it before I went to sleep, and in that space just before drifting to sleep. I loved all the poems really, and I wished I lived close to the ocean, thank the heavens for birds though. There's so many of them here. I love crows, and it's amazing that this collection made me wish I was living wild someplace far away while simultaneously grateful to be where I am . I'm really looking forward to reading more of her work, and others similar to her.
April 9, 2018
I haven’t had the best luck with Oliver’s later collections. You still get some nice nature imagery, but more often it’ll be slightly twee lines about cats and dogs instead (“Do cats pray, while they sleep / half-asleep in the sun?” from “I Happened to Be Standing” and “when he lay down to enter sleep he did not argue / about whether or not God made him” from “For I Will Consider My Dog Percy”). The thoughts about life are not quite as profound as they think they are. Still, she’s very readable, and ideal for those new to and/or wary of poetry. But if you want her best stuff, go back to Dream Work.
A few favorite lines:
“Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude? / Have I endured loneliness with grace?” (from “The Gardener”)
“You fuss over your life with your clever / words, mulling and chewing on its meaning, while / we just live it.” (from “Good-bye Fox”)
A few favorite lines:
“Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude? / Have I endured loneliness with grace?” (from “The Gardener”)
“You fuss over your life with your clever / words, mulling and chewing on its meaning, while / we just live it.” (from “Good-bye Fox”)
February 3, 2018
This is a very thoughtful collection of poetry reflecting on the natural world. I whiled away a very pleasant and meditative afternoon in my garden with this volume, and it was quite the loveliest experience.
Read
January 5, 2022first of the year, thought i’d start strong w an oliver <3
December 12, 2012
Mary Oliver's collection of poems, A Thousand Mornings, published this fall, is a poignant meditation on nature and the self. It reminded me of the nature writings of Annie Dillard, the essays of Thoreau and Emerson, and the poems of Whitman and the Transcendentalists. Oliver could be an adopted poet of that movement.
The poems are almost naked, sometimes abrupt, but if nature could speak, this is what she could say. Oliver is certainly awed by her surroundings, the sea, animals and the spirituality of nature. I think the best way to depict her style is to include one of her poems.
I Go Down to the Shore
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.
I had never heard of Mary Oliver before reading this little black and grey book of poems. I felt ignorant for not having heard of her. She is one of the most renowned poets of our time, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a recipient of the National Book Award.
Pithy and stark, her new collection is a quick read, but you find yourself reading each poem over and over again. They are unlike anything I've ever read, and I highly recommend them to other readers of nature and spirituality.
The poems are almost naked, sometimes abrupt, but if nature could speak, this is what she could say. Oliver is certainly awed by her surroundings, the sea, animals and the spirituality of nature. I think the best way to depict her style is to include one of her poems.
I Go Down to the Shore
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.
I had never heard of Mary Oliver before reading this little black and grey book of poems. I felt ignorant for not having heard of her. She is one of the most renowned poets of our time, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a recipient of the National Book Award.
Pithy and stark, her new collection is a quick read, but you find yourself reading each poem over and over again. They are unlike anything I've ever read, and I highly recommend them to other readers of nature and spirituality.
May 14, 2013
A lovely little collection of poetry centred around the power, peace and beauty of nature. Simple and peaceful observations, often with a little twist at the end, the poet's self-reflection. One of my favourites was "The Mockingbird," and I hope it is okay to quote it here:
These poems were straighforward, accessible, perfect for a somewhat hesitant poetry reader like me. Recommended.
The Mockingbird
All summer
the mockingbird
In his pearl-gray coat
and his white-windowed wings
flies
from the hedge to the top of the pine
and begins to sing, but it's neither
lilting nor lovely,
for he is the their of other sounds -
whistles and truck brakes and dry hinges
plus all the songs
of other birds in his neighbourhood;
mimicking and elaborating,
he sings with humor and bravado,
so I have to wait a long time
for the softer voice of his own life
to come through. He begins
by giving up all his usual flutter
and settling down on the pine's forelock
then looking around
as though to make sure he's alone;
then he slaps each wing against his breast,
where his heart is,
and, copying nothing, begins
easing into it
as though it was not half so easy
as rollicking,
as though his subject now
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.
These poems were straighforward, accessible, perfect for a somewhat hesitant poetry reader like me. Recommended.
September 26, 2022
I love the writing style👍
It's full humor and wit.
I fell in love with her play of words!
It's mesmerising, the lines show wisdom and clarity, drenched with reality and charm, the human mind with all its brilliance!
Totally loved this one.
I am going to reread this one for sure!
***If you are looking for a great small book of poetry, just pick up this one!
This book of poetry - you will not miss life, love and you being just human. This one is just the celebration of a great writer!
One of the best reads of January 2019👍
Planning to read all of her books!
***An excerpt:
THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules.
*This is just a mere glance of the whole book.
And yes, I chose the shortest poem😉
It's full humor and wit.
I fell in love with her play of words!
It's mesmerising, the lines show wisdom and clarity, drenched with reality and charm, the human mind with all its brilliance!
Totally loved this one.
I am going to reread this one for sure!
***If you are looking for a great small book of poetry, just pick up this one!
This book of poetry - you will not miss life, love and you being just human. This one is just the celebration of a great writer!
One of the best reads of January 2019👍
Planning to read all of her books!
***An excerpt:
THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
As long as you’re dancing, you can
break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules.
*This is just a mere glance of the whole book.
And yes, I chose the shortest poem😉
March 17, 2024
I enjoyed this and tried to space out the poems over time. I attempted to take my time and to soak in the words, it was easy to race through the different single page poems. By far, my favorite was the poem about Percy- her dog.
January 15, 2022
'the one world
we all belong to
where everything
sooner or later
is a part of everything else'
another winner from the amazing mary oliver. in conversation with flowers, foxes and the sea, these poems speak of embracing life's simplicity by taking inspiration from nature. i just love the way mary oliver looks at the world.
and yes, the ode to her pet dog made me cry. more than a little.
we all belong to
where everything
sooner or later
is a part of everything else'
another winner from the amazing mary oliver. in conversation with flowers, foxes and the sea, these poems speak of embracing life's simplicity by taking inspiration from nature. i just love the way mary oliver looks at the world.
and yes, the ode to her pet dog made me cry. more than a little.
October 30, 2012
Beautiful - I deliciously soaked up every word, over and over, on recent flights to and from Utah for hiking. Many many treasures here, but for me the best - and hardest - is 'The Gardener'. Really, I have to answer all the hardest questions of Life at one time? Working on that....
THE GARDENER
Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
..............etc
THE GARDENER
Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
..............etc
May 11, 2025
"Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I
come to any conclusions?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.
Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses."
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I
come to any conclusions?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.
Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses."
December 29, 2019
This is what I expect and like modern poetry to be!
This collection felt purposeful. I loved how the poems were all related to nature, it gave each poem its own atmosphere and it was quite magical.
I'll definitely have to continue to revisit this collection and tease out the meaning and hidden messages of each poem when I have more time to do so. I haven't felt the need to do that with any modern poetry, but A Thousand Mornings is more complex and nuanced than most modern poetry I've read. The fact that the subject matter extends beyond just straightforward sentences about sex and exes and toxic relationships and self-love is just a nice change from the norm of this genre right now.
My only issue is that I thought it ended abruptly and I wasn't sure if I agreed with the placement of each poem within the collection as a whole. I also wanted more flow and rhyme in the poems, because I just love that, but it seems like that's not something many poets like to do anymore. Oh well.
This collection felt purposeful. I loved how the poems were all related to nature, it gave each poem its own atmosphere and it was quite magical.
I'll definitely have to continue to revisit this collection and tease out the meaning and hidden messages of each poem when I have more time to do so. I haven't felt the need to do that with any modern poetry, but A Thousand Mornings is more complex and nuanced than most modern poetry I've read. The fact that the subject matter extends beyond just straightforward sentences about sex and exes and toxic relationships and self-love is just a nice change from the norm of this genre right now.
My only issue is that I thought it ended abruptly and I wasn't sure if I agreed with the placement of each poem within the collection as a whole. I also wanted more flow and rhyme in the poems, because I just love that, but it seems like that's not something many poets like to do anymore. Oh well.
June 25, 2017
Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?
I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.
Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses.
قشنگ بود. حتی حس بعضی شعرها فوق العاده بود، اما در کل نه. اونقدر قشنگ نبود که حس کنم دارم با قلبم کلمات رو میخونم...
تیر 96
January 20, 2019
I can’t say much more, except that it all happened in silence and peaceful simplicity, and something that felt like the bliss of a certainty and a life lived in accordance with that certainty. I must remember this...
I ordered this because many writers I admire mourned this poet’s recent passing. I read it in the space of what felt like a few minutes. It felt as if Isabel were speaking to me through these poems, especially given that the prevalent theme is of our connectedness to each other and to the earth. Amazing but over too soon. Off to one-click everything else she’s written.
I ordered this because many writers I admire mourned this poet’s recent passing. I read it in the space of what felt like a few minutes. It felt as if Isabel were speaking to me through these poems, especially given that the prevalent theme is of our connectedness to each other and to the earth. Amazing but over too soon. Off to one-click everything else she’s written.
December 22, 2022
One of those books-both awe inspiring & heart breaking-cannot find the words & I ache at reading this again but know that I will.
What a level of Zen consciousness that she attains so constantly.
What a level of Zen consciousness that she attains so constantly.
May 20, 2022
What can I say about Mary Oliver’s poetry that hasn’t already been said? Her poems are vivid and lovely and remind me to be glad to be alive.
July 27, 2024
“Yet little by little I learned to love my life. Though sometimes I had to run hard— especially from melancholy— not to be held back.” (from Hum Hum)
“I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully…I’m not talking about a vacation. Of course at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am. Are you following me?” (from I Have Decided)
“I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully…I’m not talking about a vacation. Of course at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am. Are you following me?” (from I Have Decided)
November 15, 2015
One of my favorite collections by Mary Oliver. I discuss this and other works here.
September 22, 2021
I need to stop reading Mary Oliver and move onto a different poet cause all of the poems are starting to sound the same lol
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,911 reviews