Upstream: Selected Essays | 
pickYesterday‘s op shop purchases. I probably should have laid off my foot but I needed the distraction as I‘m not allowed back at ballet. All for the bargain price of $28 which is pretty good in today‘s climate.
pickReading Mary Oliver is always a bit like coming home. My favorite thing about this was rereading the six essays in this that were reprinted from Winter Hours. I found rereading them in a different context fascinating. They took on a very slightly different cast surrounded by the new theme of this collection, while mostly retaining their individual characters, and gave me a lot to think about.
#weirdwords #weirdwordwednesday @CBee
Mary Oliver is expanding my scientific vocabulary (which admittedly, wasn‘t all that impressive, but I‘m still loving these!)
pickI listened to three poets read Mary Oliver‘s essays in the Pushkin audio edition and decided she is nearly as strong in her essay writing as in her poetry. Her themes are often the same: wonder and connection with the natural world. She writes at some length about her childhood friends—who were actually the poets she read as a child—Whitman, Emerson, Poe, Wordsworth & Frost. I especially enjoyed her thoughts about creativity. #LGBTQ
There is a notion that creative people are absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social customs and obligations. It is, hopefully, true. For they are in another world altogether. It is a world where the third self is governor. Neither is the purity of art the innocence of childhood, if there is such a thing.
Do you think there is anything not attached by its unbreakable cord to everything else?
Come with me into the sunflowers is a better line than anything you will find here and the sunflowers themselves are more wonderful than any words about them.
#audiocrafting — mending my already much-mended sock while listening to Mary Oliver talk about the works of Poe and Whitman.
pickSo this is my #bookspin book for the month of November. Needless to say this collection of essays is 1) going on my keeper shelf but 2) really read as a love letter to Poe, Whitman and others. Such a cozy and relaxing read. @thearomaofbooks
My birthday was yesterday (thank you all who gave me bday wishes) and reading this last night really struck me. Time goes on, no matter what!
From Mary Oliver‘s essay “Of Power and Time”. As a poet, she definitely brings the feel of poetry into her essays.
pickI will be investigating 'Our World' to get more memoir, and hopefully find a short story collection by Mary Oliver, because I loved the two in this collection. Analysis of poets/poems not my thing; wish animal death/eating animals wasn't such a big part of recounting natural world explored. Squeamish and arachnophobic should skip 'Swoon'. Not an artist, so can't comment on her directives in that matter. Think I prefer poems to poetic non-fiction.
"...solitude was a prerequisite to being openly and joyfully susceptible and responsive to the world of leaves, light, birdsong, flowers, flowing water."
Maybe it's the introvert in me, but I can never figure out how those who go in talking pairs or groups truly get anything out of a nature walk.
If you'd told me at the beginning of this year that I would actually be reading and enjoying poetry, I would have been highly dubious of your veracity. ? But Mary Oliver, yet again, helps put it into words.
"...the poem is...a place...in which to feel. Only in a secondary way is it an intellectual thing...a moment of seemly and robust wordiness-wonderful as that part of it is....the poem was made not just to exist, but to speak-to be company."
"Come with me into the field of sunflowers is a better line than anything you will find here, and the sunflowers themselves far more wonderful than any words about them."
It's not a humble brag from a Pulitzer prize winning writer. From the two collections of poems I've previously read, it's clear Mary Oliver sees the natural world around her as one of, if not THE, most valuable parts of life, not simply as subject matter for poetry. Agreed.
pickMary Oliver is a sort of Deity to me. I don‘t pray, I read Mary Oliver‘s poetry. Her writing just touches me in ways so much else doesn‘t. I love her depth, her simplicity, her oneness with nature. Both of these works are truly truly magnificent.
#thoughtfulthursday
📚 Oh my yes, I reread all my faves. Dozens of times.
📖 No, but I admit that I have bought books because of a beautiful cover.
Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView 😘
Want to play? @Roary47 @Trashcanman @Teresereading @Cathythoughts @The_Penniless_Author @Brittanysteele89
pickI have been reading Upstream for a long while. I stretched the slim book into small little snippets and only read outside. I figure that's what Mary Oliver would prefer: outside reading. She's such a treasure. My favorite essays were one about the fox and another about the injured gull. (Returned to the library so I don't have the titles) But, sigh, if only more of the world could be like M.O. I certainly strive to be. Total love 🌳🌞
pickI drew it out as long as I could, but sadly, this morning I reached the end of this beautiful book. I suspect it won‘t ever be far from my side, though.
pickI read this book back in January, but I am just now reviewing it. I read it on a personal silent retreat, and it was the perfect book for that context! It drew me back to myself, and it felt like the perfect home during that retreat. I love Mary Oliver‘s poetry, and these essays were equally wonderful!
This is the perfect book to read in the grass, beside a babbling brook, with the birds chirping. 🌾
There is some precious artwork in this article depicting children and books
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/staying-alive-mary-oliver-on-how-books-saved-...
These gorgeous spring days spent outside and stealing moments with my book while watching my children play...heaven. Total contentment. Well, I could use a few more moments reading, but that's always the case. Loving this slim volume of #essays from poet Mary Oliver. I've had this on my list a long while and I'm glad I waited til this moment in time to take it in. 🌱 🌞 #readoutside
“ ...... & Noah, the oak tree I have hugged & kissed every first day of spring for the last thirty years. And in reply it‘s thousands of leaves tremble! What a life is ours! Doesn‘t anybody in the world anymore want to get up in the middle of the night and sing ? “
Jessie , Thankyou , these Mary Oliver essays are going to save me in these days 🙏and Disappearing Earth 🙏Thankyou ! You are so good always XXX thanks , Cathy.
pickAbsolutely delightful! I have been reading this so slowly because I didn't want it to end but my nervous system needed some soothing so I finished it today. A lovely collection of different bits of Mary Oliver loveliness! 😍📚 #queerbooks
pickMary Oliver took me along on her walks through the woods and on the beach, where we observed the gulls, the egrets, the turtles, the owls, the foxes. It's hard to explain, but these essays stirred something in me. She wrote about nature, about writing and poetry, her favorite poets and writers, and her favorite spots in the woods and on the beach. She wrote about life and death. Nonfiction, essays, and still... it was poetry.
"I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one."
"The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list."
"Knowledge has entertained me and it has shaped me and it has failed me. Something in me still starves."
"Stepping out into the world, into the grass, onto the path, was always a kind of relief. I was not escaping anything. I was returning to the arena of delight."
"For me it was important to be alone; solitude was a prerequisite to being openly and joyfully susceptible and responsive to the world of leaves, light, birdsong, flowers, flowing water."
"Brawn and spirit, we are built of light, and God is within us."
"In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us."
"The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time."
"You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life."
"I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too."
I'm usually a fast reader. The only reason I don't finish books in one sitting like I used to is because I have kids to tend to lol. I still retain the information even with reading fast, but every now and then there comes a book that has me hanging on every word. I want to savor every word, every line, like one of those songs you replay over and over. I can already tell, this is one such book.
I had a hankering for Mary Oliver so went by BN to kill some time before Valentine's Day dinner. I walked out with a small stack. The Goldstein seemed fun, and the Center and Backman were in the bargain section (2 for $8 so I couldn't resist). And then came home to find the Yu waiting for me from Penguin Random House. I had redeemed some Reader Rewards points for it. Hooray new books!
I'm super exhausted so am spending my paperwork time lying on the floor of my office reading Mary Oliver.
