House of Light
by Mary Oliver
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 176)
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
seekers and yearners
Lilies
I have been thinking
about living
like the lilies
that blow in the fields.
They rise and fall in the wedge of the wind,
and have no shelter
from the tongues of the cattle,
and have no closets or cupboards,
amd have no legs.
Still I would like to be
as wonderful
as that old idea.
But if I were a lily
I think I would wait all day
for the green face
of the hummingbird
to touch me.........
My love for MO begins with the "wedge of the wind" "...more
I have been thinking
about living
like the lilies
that blow in the fields.
They rise and fall in the wedge of the wind,
and have no shelter
from the tongues of the cattle,
and have no closets or cupboards,
amd have no legs.
Still I would like to be
as wonderful
as that old idea.
But if I were a lily
I think I would wait all day
for the green face
of the hummingbird
to touch me.........
My love for MO begins with the "wedge of the wind" "...more
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recommends it for:
everyone
Mary Oliver has a gift with words...her connection with nature reminds of all the abstract truths that exist in the world around us. The Summer Day- one of my favorite poems, has always hit me hard. The last stanza you can find on my fifth grade classroom door-
"Tell me what do you plan to do-with your one wild and precious life."
"Tell me what do you plan to do-with your one wild and precious life."
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Read in March, 2008
Feels like I'm at some fancy New England writer's home. Introspective, philosophical, pretty pretty turtles and foxes and herons. And then I got bored.
Is the soul solid, like iron
Or is it tender and breakable, like
The wings of a moth in the beak of an owl?
-from the poem 'Some Questions You Might Ask'
Is the soul solid, like iron
Or is it tender and breakable, like
The wings of a moth in the beak of an owl?
-from the poem 'Some Questions You Might Ask'
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This book took a while for me to get in to it. Only on my 3 reading of it did I really start to appreciate it. To the light house follows one family though the course of 10 years, charting their down fall, and drifting apart after their matriarch dies.
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Read in May, 2008
Mary Oliver is an artist. No wonder Mark Doty's dog spotted her on a beach and pulled her down to wrestle with him on the sand, by the hood of her sweatshirt. I wish I could thank her personally for each poem.
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Read in January, 2003
I arrived very late to the Mary Oliver party, but I really love her work now that I'm familiar with it! What an open, honest poet! What respect for nature and life's processes and writing! I love her words.
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Read in September, 2007
I love Mary Oliver, and this book contains many luminous poems that take nature as their starting point, but move on to something deeper than simply describing the beauty of the natural world.
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I especially liked "White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field" and her motifs of light and fire. Each of her works contains a message on humanity and nature. A favorite poet.
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Read in January, 1994
Bright, uncluttered poems. Best read after a long run and a shower, when the mind and body are drained of worries, ready to take a beachside stroll with the author.
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Read in January, 2006
Wow. These are some fantastic, inspiring poems for either a beautiful day or a very dark one. They are poems of true gratitude.
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I love Mary Oliver. Can't say it simpler. I read these poems and I think birds are the most beautiful creatures.
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Read in September, 2006
Click here: www.robertpeake.com/archives/1...
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Simple truths and quiet reverence of nature. Read it when you're in a fairly patient and still state of mind.
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Mary Oliver is my favorite poet. She writes of the essenses of life, spirit, nature, struggle, and death.
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Read in October, 2007
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets ever, ever, ever. Her words center and enlighten me.
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Read in January, 2005
this book combined with Barbara Bosworth made me fall in love with landscape photography
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Read in January, 2005
recommended to Jan by:
self discoveredrecommends it for: Leann Neal Reilly
Nature is beautiful and we can find out about ourselves and God by observing nature.
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I especially love the one about geese. Great poetry about appreciating nature.
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Nature poems. I love nature and everything but her style isn't my favorite.
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Read in December, 2003
I bought a used copy of this book simple to possess my own "The Summer Day"
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