false <![CDATA[West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175278127m/499918.jpg 499918 2 In lines pulled taut by the tension between the silent beauty of nature and the poet's longing for words, Mary Oliver has again provided readers with plenty to think about. Consider "Stars": "How can I hope to be friends / with the hard white stars / whose flaring and hissing are not speech / but a pure radiance? / How can I hope to be friends / with the yawning spaces between them / where nothing, ever, is spoken?" Yet Oliver does strike up a kind of friendship between nature's inexpressible beauty and the necessity and solace of language. She writes vividly of each, noting the way "the sunlight and shadows are chasing each other," (from "The Dog Has Run Off Again"), in one instance, while elsewhere describing the excitement of writing poems: "little curls little shafts / of letters words / little flames leaping" (from "Forty Years"). Oliver is one of the most honored poets now writing in the English language, and, along with Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, and A.R. Ammons, an important part of the revival we are seeing in contemporary pastoral poetry. 488032 1997 West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems total:163|5:65|4:65|3:29|2:4|1:0| 163 680 197 13 5 1 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Sun Jan 13 16:22:46 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 13 16:24:04 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Feb 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 20:28:12 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 20:31:40 -0800 2009
Never to enter the sea and notice how the water divides
with perfect courtesy, to let you in!
Never to lie down on the grass, as though you were the grass!
Never to leap to the air as you open your wing...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 21 12:32:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 12:33:41 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun May 10 21:03:53 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 21:04:53 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 18 10:41:03 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 13:14:46 -0800 2009
Absolutely one of my favorite poetry books ever.]]> 5 0 false false Wed Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 14 11:55:05 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 07:12:34 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Tue Apr 22 16:28:47 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 19:15:39 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 22 16:28:25 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Tue May 13 08:47:39 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 08:48:48 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Feb 11 22:47:23 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 22:48:36 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Wed Sep 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 06 08:09:39 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 06 08:11:55 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Fri Nov 16 17:10:23 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 16 17:19:28 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Sat Jan 26 09:39:51 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 09:40:43 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sun Mar 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 05:04:15 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 05:06:36 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sat Nov 21 04:07:30 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 04:07:30 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Fri Nov 06 09:09:04 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 09:09:04 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Tue Nov 03 09:00:33 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 09:00:33 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Nov 02 11:01:57 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 11:02:11 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Oct 21 04:30:48 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 04:31:05 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Oct 06 00:23:58 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 00:23:58 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Oct 04 22:55:53 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 22:55:53 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=499918