Poetry Month & Mary Oliver

April means National Poetry Month, so every Saturday this month we’ll post a blog about this beautiful literary form. We hope you'll join in the celebration by posting your favorite poems on our Facebook page! Every week we’ll provide a theme, and invite everyone to post a favorite either with text, audio, or video.

Theme of the Week: Nature Poetry

If you enjoy nature poetry you might like Mary Oliver, whose poems connect nature and the spiritual world. Born in Ohio, Mary had an unhappy childhood. To escape her house she spent much of her time outdoors, and became inspired by the poems of Walt Whitman. She later left college without a degree, and traveled to the former home of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in New York. There, she assisted Millay’s sister in organizing the poet’s papers. She also met her partner, Molly Malone Cook. The two moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Cape Cod became an inspiration for Mary. During her lifetime she became one of the country’s favorite poets, and she received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for her poetry.

If you want to read some of the works by this poet who felt that poetry “mustn’t be fancy,” here are some online titles for you to enjoy. And if you find a favorite, feel free to post about it on our library’s Facebook page!

Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver
In this stunning collection of poems, Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature. Whether considering a bird's nest, the patience of oak trees, or the artworks of Franz Marc, she reminds us how much can be contained within the smallest moments. At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes.

Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver's Dog Songs is a celebration of the special bond between human and dog, as understood through the poet's relationship to the canines that have accompanied her daily walks, warmed her home, and inspired her work. Oliver's poems begin in the small everyday moments familiar to dog lovers, but through her vision these observations become meditations on the world and our place in it.

Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver
Upstream follows Oliver as she contemplates the pleasure of artistic labor, her boundless curiosity for flora and fauna, and the responsibility she has inherited from Shelley, Wordsworth, Emerson, Poe, and Frost to live thoughtfully and to observe with passion. In this collection, Oliver positions not just herself upstream but us as well. She encourages us to keep moving, to lose ourselves in the awe of the unknown, and to give time to the creative urges that live within us.