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Red Bird
by
Mary Oliver
Red bird came all winter / firing up the landscape / as nothing else could. So begins Mary Oliver's twelfth book of poetry, and the image of that fiery bird stays with the reader, appearing in unexpected forms and guises until, in a postscript, he explains himself: "For truly the body needs / a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work, / the soul has need of...more
Hardcover, 96 pages
Published
April 1st 2008
by Beacon Press
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I read this a month or two ago in preparation for a reading last night -- I didn't quite know what to expect as I am somewhat new to Mary Oliver. Anyway, it was a beautiful night and an incredible reading. She was a bit older than I imagined and a bit more frail, but that is truly beside the point.
My original interpretation of the poems in Red Bird, perhaps due entirely to the way I read them, had a slight sensuality to them. Hearing Mary read aloud some of these poems (and from other collection...more
My original interpretation of the poems in Red Bird, perhaps due entirely to the way I read them, had a slight sensuality to them. Hearing Mary read aloud some of these poems (and from other collection...more
6 likes · like · see review
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GO GET THIS BOOK!
Yeah,I'm yelling at you , reading the Sandra Brown! Hey!! Put down the James Patterson and get your hands on this!! It will rock your poetic world.
GO! While you are out, pick up a copy for me, so I don't "forget" to give this back to my friend.
Yeah,I'm yelling at you , reading the Sandra Brown! Hey!! Put down the James Patterson and get your hands on this!! It will rock your poetic world.
GO! While you are out, pick up a copy for me, so I don't "forget" to give this back to my friend.
4 likes · like · see review
...and this is why I have been sent,
To teach this to your heart.
What a beautiful variety of poetry. I am new to Mary Oliver and can't wait to get my hands on more of her writing. She expresses love, appreciation for nature, gratitude, and even disappointment with those who are power hungry in a very flowing prose.
To teach this to your heart.
What a beautiful variety of poetry. I am new to Mary Oliver and can't wait to get my hands on more of her writing. She expresses love, appreciation for nature, gratitude, and even disappointment with those who are power hungry in a very flowing prose.
5 likes · like · see review
My days have been difficult and dark of late. I don't know anything else but that deep space with no light; it's as if I have lived there always. This morning, I opened this book and found prayers for my life. I am not a deeply religious person but Mary Oliver's words have touched my soul deeply—they always have, anyway—and I thought, damn, there is nothing truer than this, right now: Sometimes / melancholy leaves me breathless. (Sometimes)
When she writes in Red Bird, "I know He has many childr...more
When she writes in Red Bird, "I know He has many childr...more
Oliver uses a recurring theme of nature as expressed through the characters of the Red Bird and the Fox, her own reflection, and a dog named Percy. The thesis is a quote from Vincent Van Gogh, “To know God is to love many things.” The poem “Boundaries,” a personal favorite, says that there is this jump that can be made between where we are and home, among the stones and trees. This is the place where Oliver’s Red Bird and Fox sing. And these characters observe humans. The very next poem is “Stra...more
I loved this book. Definitely one of my favorite Mary Oliver collections. I was particularly struck by the poems in this book that concern words, and specifically, the writing of words. On one hand, Ms. Oliver ponders, words are everything. But on the other, they are nothing. She puts the image of herself, constantly finding beauty, joy, and anguish in writing and manipulating language, against the image of the red bird, the fox, the owl. In the natural world, of which she writes so much about,...more
I am a recent fan of Mary Oliver, and I cannot get enough of her now that I know her. To know her truly is to love her.
I found myself in the campus bookstore today, and as it is the end of National Poetry Month, they are finishing up a promotion where some featured poetry works were 20% off. Having worked tirelessly for the past few days especially to get some papers in under the wire, I rewarded myself with a new book, which I could not put down.
I look forward to rereading several which I hav...more
I found myself in the campus bookstore today, and as it is the end of National Poetry Month, they are finishing up a promotion where some featured poetry works were 20% off. Having worked tirelessly for the past few days especially to get some papers in under the wire, I rewarded myself with a new book, which I could not put down.
I look forward to rereading several which I hav...more
WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL! I can SO relate to her poems. I'm buying this book for myself, and my friends. Thanks Tanya for the great recommendation.
I will try.
I will step from the house to see what I see
and hear and I will praise it.
I did not come into this world
to be comforted.
I came, like red bird, to sing.
Watching a Documentary about Polar Bears
Trying to Survive on the melting Ice Floes
That God had a plan, I do not doubt.
But what if His plan was, that we would do better?
I will try.
I will step from the house to see what I see
and hear and I will praise it.
I did not come into this world
to be comforted.
I came, like red bird, to sing.
Watching a Documentary about Polar Bears
Trying to Survive on the melting Ice Floes
That God had a plan, I do not doubt.
But what if His plan was, that we would do better?
This collection represents quintessential Oliver.
She is in fine form here, notably in the poems, Invitation (p. 18), and Sometimes (p. 35). I noted twenty-five other exemplary poems, out of a collection of sixty-one.
When her words resonate, they sing. When they don't, they fall like flattened leaves.
I expected greatness in this collection and found goodness, with the exception of what I can only surmise are "filler" poems.
My only regret is that the filler poems exist at all, because, for me,...more
She is in fine form here, notably in the poems, Invitation (p. 18), and Sometimes (p. 35). I noted twenty-five other exemplary poems, out of a collection of sixty-one.
When her words resonate, they sing. When they don't, they fall like flattened leaves.
I expected greatness in this collection and found goodness, with the exception of what I can only surmise are "filler" poems.
My only regret is that the filler poems exist at all, because, for me,...more
I like this book better than her previous one, Thirst. It offers many of the same themes but...better. Reminds me of how I liked Donald Hall's Without, but felt the poems in his The Painted Bed were better poems. Maybe being too close to grief affects the work; the poems in Thirst are more awkward. Maybe more immediate (hence more "true"?), but less pleasing overall.
An outstanding collection of poems (by an author who is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award)... I would love to read it again. I would like to own it, and may post a couple of my favorites later after looking through it again.
To me they are spiritual and earthy, making one feel a closer connection to nature and God.
To me they are spiritual and earthy, making one feel a closer connection to nature and God.
Previous to Red Bird, I had only read individual poems by Mary Oliver, never a full book. But with each individual poem I read, I found that I enjoyed her work more and more. To read a full book of Mary Oliver's poetry was equal to the sum of that individual enjoyment. I will be doing this more often.
Mary Oliver’s close ties to the earth and all it’s beauty, are plainly evident in her poetry. She writes about life, love, loss, the human body and spirit and magnificently uses nature as her muse and metaphors. Her impassioned view of life and the nature that surrounds us is inspirational to me.
As usual, Mary Oliver's poems heal, illuminate and soothe me. This book's poems deal with loss and grief and love more than the others. And for me, it is perfect timing. Thank you, Mary Oliver, for your love songs. Can't click "I have finished this book" below, for I will never finish this book.
Jun 26, 2009
Geoffrey Gioja
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes Mary Oliver's work
Shelves:
mary-oliver
Read half of this book out lout to my daughter last night. Totally lovely. So far, not as many "hit me hard like a thump on my chest" as I usually encounter after reading twenty poems or so. The last one I read was the one she published just after the love of her life had died. . .
This is the kind of poetry that can shape your life, that can change how you understand yourself, how you understand your place in the world, how you live in that world. Words arranged so simply, and beautifully, and clearly, but with such truth and compelling power.
I have found a kindred poetic spirit in Mary Oliver's, "Red Bird." Her poetry gives voice to the true mute poet in my soul. Thank you, Mary Oliver, your words are just what I needed when I needed it. Highly, highly recommended.
See my review on the author's other book that pertains to this title. Click this sentence. :)
This price of this book is worth the one poem Red Bird alone. Exquisite.
This price of this book is worth the one poem Red Bird alone. Exquisite.
With Mary Oliver one is always struck by the effortless lyricism and how she finds the music in animals and nature - and consequently ourselves, even in its absence. The poem "Luke" embodies this perfectly: an elegy to very loved dog that at the same time function as a lament of what we humans often hope to but fail to emulate: "the way we love/ or don't love—/ but the way/ we long to be—/ that happy/ in the heaven of earth—/ that wild, that loving."
These poems evoke such beautiful images in my mind...walking along a wooded path, watching the ocean rush onto the sand, colorful fall leaves, crisp winter snow, birds and animals in all of these settings. Really lovely!
Somehow Mary Oliver's words manage to throw a pond into my living room and create space for LIFE in my heart. It's like the ink on the pages of her books is made up of love of life, distilled to its most essential form.
I have read many of Mary Oliver's writings. She strikes a chord in the very depths of my being. She is an observer of nature and an eloquent writer. The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She has many books available, I am just listing this one.
This is my favorite book of 2009, as much for the story of how it found me than the poems contained within. Mary Oliver is a soul friend--capable of making me feel not alone, and slightly less crazy.
I just found out about Mary Oliver yesterday when a friend loaned me this book. How beautiful and poignant these poems are! I ordered a copy for myself! She is from Ohio, my home state.
I love all of Mary Oliver's writing, but every once in a while I run across a poem that blows me away. "The Journey" has long been my favorite of her poems, but "Straight Talk from Fox" in Red Bird simply took my breath away, and may be my new favorite. The whole book is wonderful, but worth reading for this one poem alone.
Ethereal and earthy. I always feel things are very simple and very deep when reading Mary Oliver. She's full of significance, includes weighty detail, but never feels silly.
This is Mary Oliver's latest. Her voice remains both positive and authentic. She's grounded in nature, but manages to draw important abstract conclusions.
Everything Mary Oliver writes is extraordinary. Yes, i'm deeply biased- I love the woman, the artist. I recommend all of her collections which are- thank God- many.
Hmmm. How many stars to give a book of poetry that you didn't enjoy especially (too much nature, too much God), but could see was well-written??
I read this book about a year ago and recently dipped in. Pure joy and refreshment. Mary Oliver is a Bodhisattva of Poetry!
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“Mary Oliver. In a region that has produced most of the nation's poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observati...more
More about Mary Oliver...
“Mary Oliver. In a region that has produced most of the nation's poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observati...more
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“Love sorrow. She is yours now, and you must
take care of what has been
given. Brush her hair, help her
into her little coat, hold her hand,
especially when crossing a street. For, think,
what if you should lose her? Then you would be
sorrow yourself; her drawn face, her sleeplessness
would be yours. Take care, touch
her forehead that she feel herself not so
utterly alone. And smile, that she does not
altogether forget the world before the lesson.
Have patience in abundance. And do not
ever lie or ever leave her even for a moment
by herself, which is to say, possibly, again,
abandoned. She is strange, mute, difficult,
sometimes unmanageable but, remember, she is a child.
And amazing things can happen. And you may see,
as the two of you go
walking together in the morning light, how
little by little she relaxes; she looks about her;
she begins to grow.”
—
85 people liked it
take care of what has been
given. Brush her hair, help her
into her little coat, hold her hand,
especially when crossing a street. For, think,
what if you should lose her? Then you would be
sorrow yourself; her drawn face, her sleeplessness
would be yours. Take care, touch
her forehead that she feel herself not so
utterly alone. And smile, that she does not
altogether forget the world before the lesson.
Have patience in abundance. And do not
ever lie or ever leave her even for a moment
by herself, which is to say, possibly, again,
abandoned. She is strange, mute, difficult,
sometimes unmanageable but, remember, she is a child.
And amazing things can happen. And you may see,
as the two of you go
walking together in the morning light, how
little by little she relaxes; she looks about her;
she begins to grow.”
“it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.”
—
29 people liked it
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