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Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver Quotes

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Famous Mary Oliver Quotes

“Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled-to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing-that the light is everything-that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.”

WorldWantBelieveLittlesStillsFactsLightLife IsDifficultWhiteFireMysteryWillingWeightCastsRisingImperfectionFloatsFlawedFading
Book:New and Selected Poems, Volume One
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“When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it is over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”

IfsWorldWantLifeInspirationalMadeRealEndsWonderThis WorldParticularArmsMarriedArgumentFrightenedBridesAmazementBridegroom
Author:Mary Oliver
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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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“The poet dreams of the classroom I dreamed I stood up in class And I said aloud: Teacher, Why is algebra important? Sit down, he said. Then I dreamed I stood up And I said: Teacher, I’m weary of the turkeys That we have to draw every fall. May I draw a fox instead? Sit down, he said. Then I dreamed I stood up once more and said: Teacher, My heart is falling asleep And it wants to wake up. It needs to be outside. Sit down, he said.”

WantNeedsHeartMaySaidImportantDreamFallClassTeacherPoetMy HeartDrawsWake UpClassroomWearyFoxesTurkeysStood UpAlgebraFalling Asleep
Book:Swan: Poems and Prose 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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“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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“I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even as you are reading you feel it and as you read you keep feeling it and though it be my story it will be common, though it be singular it will be known to you so that by the end you will think— no, you will realize— that it was all the while yourself arranging the words, that it was all the time words that you yourself, out of your heart had been saying.”

ThinkingWantFeelsWritingHeartEndsStoriesFeelingsPainReadingRealizingCommonKnownArranging
Author:Mary Oliver
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