Blue Pastures Quotes

“And now I understand something so frightening &wonderful-

how the mind clings to the road it knows,
rushing through crossroads, sticking

like lint to the familiar.”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“When will you have a little pity for every soft thing that walks through the world, yourself included.”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“And now my old dog is dead, and another I had after him, and my parents are dead, and that first world, that old house, is sold and lost, and the books I gathered there lost, or sold- but more books bought, and in another place, board by board and stone by stone, like a house, a true life built, and all because I was steadfast about one or two things: loving foxes, and poems, the blank piece of paper, and my own energy- and mostly the shimmering shoulders of the world that shrug carelessly over the fate of any individual that they may, the better, keep the Niles and Amazons flowing.”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“Do you think the wren ever dreams of a better house?”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“the river can’t wait to get to the ocean and the sky, it’s been there before.”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“When I was young, I was attracted to sorrow. It seemed interesting. It seemed an energy that would take me somewhere. Now I am older . . . and I hate sorrow. I see that it has no energy of its own, but uses mine, furtively. I see that it is leaden, without breath, and repetitious, and unsolvable. And now I see that I am sorrowful about only a few things, but over and over.”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures

“Give me that dark moment; I will carry it everywhere like a mouthful of rain. — Mary Oliver, from “Pen and Paper and a Breath of Air: Excerpts,” Blue Pastures. (Mariner Books; 1 edition November 10, 1995)”
― Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures