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Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver Quotes

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Famous Mary Oliver Quotes

“How many mysteries have you seen in your lifetime? How many nets pulled full over the boat's side, each silver body ready or not falling into submission? How many roses in early summer uncurling above the pale sands then falling back in unfathomable willingness? And what can you say? Glory to the rose and the leaf, to the seed, to the silver fish. Glory to time and the wild fields, and to joy. And to grief's shock and torpor, its near swoon.”

BodyJoyFallSidesGriefMysteryFieldsReadySummerGloryRoseLifetimeFishesSeedsBoatShockSandSilverWillingnessPaleLeafsSubmissionUnfathomable
Book:Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
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“from the complications of loving you i think there is no end or return. no answer, no coming out of it. which is the only way to love, isn't it? this isn't a playground, this is earth, our heaven, for a while. therefore i have given precedence to all my sudden, sullen, dark moods that hold you in the center of my world. and i say to my body: grow thinner still. and i say to my fingers, type me a pretty song. and i say to my heart: rave on.”

ThinkingWorldWayHeartStillsEndsBodyEarthSongGivenHeavenGrowsDarkAnswersTypeReturnMy HeartFingersMoodComing OutLoving YouPlaygroundsComplicationPrecedenceSullenRave
Author:Mary Oliver
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“At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled after a night of rain. I dip my cupped hands. I drink a long time. It tastes like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold into my body, waking the bones. I hear them deep inside me, whispering oh what is that beautiful thing that just happened?”

LongBodyHandsBeautifulNightFallWaterFireHappenedColdDrinkTasteLong TimeRainStonesBonesWakingBeautiful ThingsWhisperingPondsDeep InsideDip
Book:New and Selected Poems, Volume One
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“On the beach, at dawn: Four small stones clearly Hugging each other. How many kinds of love Might there be in the world, And how many formations might they make And who am I ever To imagine I could know Such a marvelous business? When the sun broke It poured willingly its light Over the stones That did not move, not at all, Just as, to its always generous term, It shed its light on me, My own body that loves, Equally, to hug another body.”

KnowsWorldKindBodyLightMightMovingTermMy OwnSunFourImagineStonesBrokeBeachDawnGenerousHugShedMarvelousFormationKinds Of Love
Book:Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
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“Tom Dancer’s gift of a whitebark pine cone You never know What opportunity Is going to travel to you, Or through you. Once a friend gave me A small pine cone- One of a few He found in the scat Of a grizzly In Utah maybe, Or Wyoming. I took it home And did what I supposed He was sure I would do- I ate it, Thinking How it had traveled Through that rough And holy body. It was crisp and sweet. It was almost a prayer Without words. My gratitude, Tom Dancer, For this gift of the world I adore so much And want to belong to. And thank you too, great bear”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWantHomeBodyFoundOpportunityPrayerSweetBearsGratitudeHolyDancerRoughTomsTraveledAdoreCrispsUtahConesWyomingGrizzlies
Author:Mary Oliver
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“I had a dog who loved flowers. Briskly she went through the fields, yet paused for the honeysuckle or the rose, her dark head and her wet nose touching the face of every one with its petals of silk with its fragrance rising into the air where the bees, their bodies heavy with pollen hovered - and easily she adored every blossom not in the serious careful way that we choose this blossom or that blossom the way we praise or don't praise - the way we love or don't love - but the way we long to be - that happy in the heaven of earth - that wild, that loving.”

WayLongBodyEarthFacesHeavenDarkAirDogFieldsSeriousFlowerPraiseRoseCarefulHeavyNosesRisingTouchingWetBeesFragranceSilkPetalsPollen
Author:Mary Oliver
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“When death comes…. I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what it’s going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility, and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular, and each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending, as all music does, toward silence, and each body as a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth. [from the poem "When Death Comes"]”

ThinkingWantLooksDoeIdeasBodyEarthNamesCommonSilenceWonderStepsDarknessDoorsFieldsPossibilityFlowerComfortableMouthsEternityCuriosityLionsBrotherhoodSisterhoodDaisiesCottages
Author:Mary Oliver
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“When the blackberries hang swollen in the woods, in the brambles nobody owns, I spend all day among the high branches, reaching my ripped arms, thinking of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth; all day my body accepts what it is. In the dark creeks that run by there is this thick paw of my life darting among the black bells, the leaves; there is this happy tongue.”

ThinkingBodyRunningBlackDarkAcceptingArmsSummerMouthsWoodsTongueBranchesReachingHoneyThickBellsRippedPawsCreeksSwollenBlackberriesCramming
Book:New and selected poems
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