Twelve Moons Quotes

“Sleeping In The Forest

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“Beaver Moon - The Suicide of a Friend

When somewhere life
breaks like a pane of glass,
and from every direction casual
voices are bringing you the news,
you say: I should have known.
You say: I should have been aware. That last Friday he looked
so ill, like an old mountain-climber
lost on the white trails, listening
to the ice breaking upward, under
his worn-out shoes. You say: I heard rumors of trouble, but after all
we all have that. You say:
What could I have done? and you go
with the rest, to bury him. That night, you turn in your bed
to watch the moon rise, and once more
see what a small coin it is
against the darkness, and how everything else
is a mystery, and you know
nothing at all except
the moonlight is beautiful-
white rivers running together
along the bare boughs of the trees- and somewhere, for someone, life
is becoming moment by moment
unbearable.”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“The Black Snake"

When the black snake
flashed onto the morning road,
and the truck could not swerve--
death, that is how it happens.

Now he lies looped and useless
as an old bicycle tire.
I stop the car
and carry him into the bushes.

He is as cool and gleaming
as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet
as a dead brother.
I leave him under the leaves

and drive on, thinking
about death: its suddenness,
its terrible weight,
its certain coming. Yet under

reason burns a brighter fire, which the bones
have always preferred.
It is the story of endless good fortune.
It says to oblivion: not me!

It is the light at the center of every cell.
It is what sent the snake coiling and flowing forward
happily all spring through the green leaves before
he came to the road.

Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons. (Back Bay Books August 30, 1979)”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“They remind me of something, some other travelers—
‘Two great-uncles who went west years ago
And got lost in Colorado
Looking for the good life.
I have a picture of them; each is smiling,
Glad to be young and strong.
But you never know, traveling, around what bend
The dreams will curve to an end,
And what will happen then.”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“That night, you turn in your bed
to watch the moon rise, and once more
see what a small coin it is
against the darkness, and how everything else
is a mystery, and you know
nothing at all except
the moonlight is beautiful –
white rivers running together
along the bare boughs of the trees –
and somewhere, for someone, life
is becoming moment by moment
unbearable.

(From Beaver Moon – The Suicide of a Friend, in Twelve Moons by Mary Oliver)”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“…He returned
from that wild green America,
but hardly what he’d been – more river water
in his veins than blood, more leaves
than flesh, more earth
than ego. And what life
was possible then? Government?
Commerce?...

Sturgeon Moon – The Death of Meriwether Lewis, in Twelve Moons by Mary Oliver)”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons

“you will live whether you will or not,
one way or another,
because everything is everything else

(Pink Moon, The Pond, Mary Oliver in Twelve Moons)”
― Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons