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Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver Quotes

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Famous Mary Oliver Quotes

“Why I Wake Early Hello, sun in my face. Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields and into the faces of the tulips and the nodding morning glories, and into the windows of, even, the miserable and the crotchety – best preacher that ever was, dear star, that just happens to be where you are in the universe to keep us from ever-darkness, to ease us with warm touching, to hold us in the great hands of light – good morning, good morning, good morning. Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”

MadeHandsLightHappensFacesUniverseStarsWatchesKindnessMorningDarknessSunFieldsGloryWindowDearSpreadWarmMiserableEaseWhere You AreTouchingPreacherHelloStart The DayNoddingMorning Glory
Book:Why I Wake Early: New Poems
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“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.”

IfsLightEarthNightStarsWaterDarkWhitePerfectMorningDarknessFireHeardTreeBedBirdRiversStonesRoseSeedsKingdomsBreathingRememberedBranchesPocketsDozenMy ThoughtsInsectsDoomAll NightSomething BetterSkirtsLuminousMothsArrangingGrappling
Book:Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
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“There are things you can’t reach. But You can reach out to them, and all day long. The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of god. And it can keep you busy as anything else, and happier. I look; morning to night I am never done with looking. Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around As though with your arms open.”

LooksMeanLongIdeasDoneNightMorningWindArmsBirdStandingBusyFlyingReach OutFly AwayBird Flying
Book:Why I Wake Early: New Poems
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“Mornings at Blackwater" For years, every morning, I drank from Blackwater Pond. It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt, the feet of ducks. And always it assuaged me from the dry bowl of the very far past. What I want to say is that the past is the past, and the present is what your life is, and you are capable of choosing what that will be, darling citizen. So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.”

WorldWantYearsPastLife IsImaginationMorningDoubtFeetCitizensCapableRiversLongingLipsDryNo DoubtDucksEvery MorningBowlsLive Your LifeDarlingDrankHarborsOaksPonds
Book:Red Bird: Poems
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“I do not live happily or comfortably With the cleverness of our times. The talk is all about computers, The news is all about bombs and blood. This morning, in the fresh field, I came upon a hidden nest. It held four warm, speckled eggs. I touched them. Then went away softly, Having felt something more wonderful Than all the electricity of New York City.”

FeltCitiesMorningFourWonderfulBloodNew YorkFieldsComputerNewsWarmOur TimeBombsTouchedEggsNew York CityElectricityNestsCleverness
Book:Evidence: Poems
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“Every spring I hear the thrush singing in the glowing woods he is only passing through. His voice is deep, then he lifts it until it seems to fall from the sky. I am thrilled. I am grateful. Then, by the end of morning, he's gone, nothing but silence out of the tree where he rested for a night. And this I find acceptable. Not enough is a poor life. But too much is, well, too much. Imagine Verdi or Mahler every day, all day. It would exhaust anyone.”

WellsEndsEnoughSeemsNightFallVoicePoorSilenceMorningGoneToo MuchImagineTreeSkySpringSingingGratefulWoodsPassingPassingsLiftsAcceptableGlowingPassing ThroughI Am GratefulPoor LifeThrushMahlerVerdi
Book:A Thousand Mornings: Poems
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