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1st out of 13 books
—
2 voters
New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2
by
Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver has been writing poetry for nearly five decades, and in that time she has become America's foremost poetic voice on our experience of the physical world. This collection presents forty-two new poems-an entire volume in itself-along with works chosen by Oliver from six of the books she has published since New and Selected Poems, Volume One.
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
April 15th 2007
by Beacon Press
(first published 1992)
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Sep 07, 2010
Caris
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who doesn't have the time to lay in the grass and stare at the blades
Shelves:
2010
When I was in high school, I was forced against my will to read Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled.” I thought the poem was absurd. Well, perhaps it wasn’t the poem I objected to. After all, I hated everything I was assigned to read in high school, probably because of the implications of what would happen if I didn’t: no college, no escape from Bumfuck, AZ. The incentive to read the required texts was great, but the desire was minimal. My teacher saw something profound in Frost’s poem. As it happen...more
This volume of poetry is supremely accessible. While it would be exhausting and difficult to read straight through a volume by most poets, I glided from cover to cover of this book in less than two hours. Oliver is so gentle and transparent with her readers, whom she directly addresses with great frequency, that it feels as if she is holding your hand on a guided tour (with dogs) through a country side full of singing birds and (somehow not depressingly) animal carcasses.
Since a search for meani...more
Since a search for meani...more
Just last week, The Porch Hags Society held its first meeting. PHS is a group of ladies with a fond appreciation for writing poetry. We sat and read work we've already written and did exercises and themes to work off of while in each others' presence. I found it extremely liberating and tried to pin down exactly what style I was going for having never written much poetry in the past. And I noticed that as spring and summer loomed that a love for nature entwined with the city shone through my wo...more
Mary Oliver is quintessential. Transcendental. It is no wonder she is the Pulitzer prize winner for poetry. She can show you through her words. She is technically perfect with her poetry. When she talks of crickets and dogs and birds and ponds and lakes and forests and trees, you almost forget and think she is actually talking about those things. But when we settle back down to the page, we realize all of those things house the reality of another world. A world we are so close to we can't even s...more
A fine collection. I would have enjoyed taking it up into the mountains or reading it from a canoe, book in one hand, sandwich in the other. Not every poem spoke to me, and I found some lines downright distracting. For instance, in an otherwise delightful poem about bees, the speaker remarks "I think there isn't anything in this world I don't / admire. If there is, I don't know what it is. I / haven't me it yet. Nor expect to. . . ." blah.
She expertly strikes a balance between offering witness t...more
She expertly strikes a balance between offering witness t...more
I have been trying to find a poet I like, and Mary Oliver is probably one of my current favorites. This collection is beautiful in all senses the word can be used; I normally find nature poems and stories hard to get into, but Oliver uses nature and living creatures to illuminate the self (or the "soul"). When I read her poems, I feel as if I am finally seeing the things that are important: the world around us as it is, words that are used to create something beautiful, and who I am, and could b...more
I am amazed by my hate for her poetry!
example:
"They blew in the wind, softly, this way, that way. They were not disappointed when they saw the scissors, rather they brace themselves sweetly and shone with willingness. They were on tall and tender poles, with wheels of leaves. They were soft as the ears of kittens. They felt warm in recognition of the summer day. A dozen was plenty. I held them in my arms. They were silent the way the deepest water is silent. If they wondered where they were goin...more
example:
"They blew in the wind, softly, this way, that way. They were not disappointed when they saw the scissors, rather they brace themselves sweetly and shone with willingness. They were on tall and tender poles, with wheels of leaves. They were soft as the ears of kittens. They felt warm in recognition of the summer day. A dozen was plenty. I held them in my arms. They were silent the way the deepest water is silent. If they wondered where they were goin...more
I adore Oliver's connection to nature. A sample from page 32:
Of What Surrounds Me
Whatever it is I am saying, I always
need a leaf or a flower, if not an
entire field. As for sky, I am so wildly
in love with each day's inventions, cool blue
or cat gray or full
of the ships of clouds, I simply can't
say whatever it is I am saying without
at least one skyful. That leaves water, a
creek or a well, river or ocean, it has to be
there. For the heart to be there. For the pen
to be poised. For the idea to com...more
Of What Surrounds Me
Whatever it is I am saying, I always
need a leaf or a flower, if not an
entire field. As for sky, I am so wildly
in love with each day's inventions, cool blue
or cat gray or full
of the ships of clouds, I simply can't
say whatever it is I am saying without
at least one skyful. That leaves water, a
creek or a well, river or ocean, it has to be
there. For the heart to be there. For the pen
to be poised. For the idea to com...more
These are poems that you thought were impossible until you read them. Mary Oliver takes poetry back to its simple original purpose: to celebrate. I am skeptical of nature poetry normally. It seems so "wishy-washy." But this stuff is sturdy, it makes you feel alive, it talks about the world how it really is and it made me remember real-life beauty.
I mean, I think if you wanted to define "beauty" to somebody who never heard of it, one of these poems would be the thing to give them.
I mean, I think if you wanted to define "beauty" to somebody who never heard of it, one of these poems would be the thing to give them.
Right in the middle of her mostly human-less poems, there's one that says that if only Donald Rumsfeld would crawl out of the President's armpit and play with her little dog, he would be, for a moment, a rational man. I laughed out loud. An insult a career in the making. Black bears, lilies, wild geese, ants, fields, rivers, trees, and Donald Rumsfeld in the President's armpit. Thank you for all that you do, Mary Oliver.
Poetry is really hard for me. I've written one pretty good one, I think, and I grew up with Robert Frost, but generally I don't get enough information with poetry for me to enjoy it. Until I ran across Mary Oliver. Her poems are amazing........ images I can totally relate to - totally transcended into thought and ponderings/revelations about things that really matter. Have you read her, Laura?
Seamus Heany once signed a book of poems for Angela and he talked about how poems we enjoy give us back what was ours (they reminds us previous experiences we've had in our life). This book of poems does this also; it takes you back to experiences especially of the outdoors & wildlife. This was Angela's intent when she bought this book of poems for me to read. I am very grateful.
Oliver has an artful way of looking at the beauties of nature (as well as its ugliness). Her poetry is verse so free as to be almost prose, but she does a masterful job of weaving observations of the creation into the development of personal philosophies. Once or twice she strays into politics and loses some of her transcendence, but generally she stays close to the soil. My greater concern was that her paeans of praise are almost exclusively for the creation, seldom its Creator. Perhaps I read...more
I've discovered that I like Mary Oliver's early poems, but I love her poetry 2000 to the present. Whether it's the song of a bird, a dead fox, a sky full of stars, or the scent of a flowering plant, all her subject matter makes you think twice and delve a little deeper. By far this is the best book I read all year and I can't wait to read it again.
Through this book, I have fallen in love with the poetry of Mary Oliver. A nature poet, Oliver has a tone and voice that both quiets and disquiets; both resonates and stills. She writes, "I tell you this/to break your heart,/by which I mean only/that it break open and never close again/to the rest of the world."
This was a gift from Noor... I devoured most of this book on the subway on the way to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit at the Whitney. I couldn't imagine a better prelude to O'Keefe...
sheer beauty, a love of nature and compassion for all living beings radiates throughout this book.
sheer beauty, a love of nature and compassion for all living beings radiates throughout this book.
Mary Oliver's work slowly drains away the details of my daily life--my harried, noisy, urban life--to make space for me to see what she sees--the water, the lily, the owl, wonder and death and rain-washed skies that tell me all I need to know but had forgotten how to ask.
This collection is one I return to again and again. Even though Mary Oliver has published a lot since this book, and much of it has been very good, none of it has surpassed this one. Everything is new and surprising.
Mar 03, 2010
Jess
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes nature, people who like poetry, simplicity, clarity
Shelves:
2010,
cs-spring-summer-challenge-2010
Mary Oliver has such a beautiful way of describing that feeling we get when we smell rain or how nature tells us secrets or captivates us. This volume is, in my opinion, even better than the first.
Amazing poetry. Mary Oliver makes me feel like I am seeing the world through a new lens, at the same time that she seems to intrinsically know what I am feeling. Beautiful.
Mary Oliver is simply stellar. Her eye, her wit, her perception intertwined with nature is a marvel, and a blessing.
Nothing can start a day more peaceful, more thankful, than a cup of coffee and words by Mary Oliver.
Well maybe one thing. Rising with the sun and opening my door and walking outside into nature and observing, as she does, the greatest gift that we usually ignore in our haste, hurry, and laziness.
Nothing can start a day more peaceful, more thankful, than a cup of coffee and words by Mary Oliver.
Well maybe one thing. Rising with the sun and opening my door and walking outside into nature and observing, as she does, the greatest gift that we usually ignore in our haste, hurry, and laziness.
I borrowed this book from a friend but will go out and purchase at least one Mary Oliver book to own. Natural, rural, pastoral without pretension.
If you buy one book of poetry this year, buy this one. Mary Oliver asks, "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
I think I like this one better than Volume One, if that's possible! So lovely. Her poetry really connects w/ me.
I read from this book when I want to read something beautiful, strong and well written- or to think about nature.
I gave this as a gift (to share) with my husband...we both love her work. I have only sampled a few pages.
I love her poetry and her sensibility about humans' connection to nature. I've learned so much from her.
I was going to list my favourites. But not possible. Just about every one of them is special in some way.
Another beautiful collection of poetry. The perfect way to end a day and enter into dreams.
I love this woman -- the way she thinks, the way she sees the world. The way she teaches us to be attentive: “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
and
“I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”
~ Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2
and
“I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”
~ Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2
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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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“I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”
—
267 people liked it
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”
“I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us...”
—
59 people liked it
More quotes…
Sep 08, 2010 09:38am
Sep 08, 2010 09:40am