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Quote by Mary Oliver

“Life is much the same when it's going well-- resonant and unremarkable. But who, not under disaster's seal, can understand what life is like when it begins to crumble?”

Quote by Mary Oliver

Book:Dream Work

Work

This book delves into the intricate workings of the subconscious, analyzing the significance of dreams in shaping human behavior and understanding. It examines various theories and interpretations of dreams, offering insights into their psychological and cultural implications. more

Author

Mary Oliver is a renowned American poet, born on September 10, 1935. Her poetry is known for its profound depiction of the natural world and delicate insights into life. Oliver's style is simple and direct, which has won her a wide audience. more

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“Poetry is a river; many voices travel in it; poem after poem moves along in the exciting crests and falls of the river waves. None is timeless; each arrives in an historical context; almost everything, in the end, passes. But the desire to make a poem, and the world's willingness to receive it--indeed the world's need of it--these never pass.”

World Needs Ends Moving Desire Poetry Fall Voice Rivers Exciting Historical Wave Poetry Is Willingness Timeless Historical Context

Book:A Poetry Handbook

Source: A Poetry Handbook

“Poetry is a serious business; literature is the apparatus through which the world tries to keep intact its important ideas and feelings.”

World Trying Important Ideas Feelings Poetry Literature Serious Poetry Is Serious Business

Book:A Poetry Handbook

Source: A Poetry Handbook

“Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began, as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth. Also, it began through the process of seeing, and feeling, and hearing, and smelling, and touching, and then remembering--I mean remembering in words--what these perceptual experiences were like, while trying to describe the endless invisible fears and desires of our inner lives.”

Trying Mean Art Feelings Earth Remember Desire Poetry Process Seeing Fine Originals Ancient Hearing Endless Invisible Wilderness Poetry Is Touching Inner Life Fine Arts Ancient Art

Book:A Poetry Handbook

Source: A Poetry Handbook

“With words, I could build a world I could live in. I had a very dysfunctional family, and a very hard childhood. So I made a world out of words. And it was my salvation.”

World Made Hard Childhood Salvation Dysfunctional Family

Author:Mary Oliver

“Oh, yesterday, that one, we all cry out. Oh, that one! How rich and possible everything was! How ripe, ready, lavish, and filled with excitement--how hopeful we were on those summer days, under the clean, white racing clouds. Oh, yesterday!”

White Rich Cry Ready Summer Filled Clean Clouds Yesterday Excitement Hopeful Racing Ripe Summer Days

Book:Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems

Source: Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems

“It was not a choice of writing or not writing. It was a choice of loving my life or not loving my life. To keep writing was always a first priority.... I worked probably 25 years by myself.... Just writing and working, not trying to publish much. Not giving readings. A longer time than people really are willing to commit before they want to go public.”

People Want Giving Writing Trying Years Firsts Choices Reading Willing Priorities Commit Publish

Author:Mary Oliver

“I learned to build bookshelves and brought books to my room, gathering them around me thickly. I read by day and into the night. I thought about perfectibility, and deism, and adjectives, and clouds, and the foxes, I locked my door, from the inside, and leaped from the roof and went to the woods, by day or darkness.”

Book Night Rooms Darkness Doors Clouds Woods Locked Roof Foxes Gathering Adjectives Bookshelves Deism

Book:Upstream: Selected Essays

Source: Upstream: Selected Essays

“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.”

Body Joy Fall Sides Grief Mystery Fields Ready Summer Glory Rose Lifetime Fishes Seeds Boat Shock Sand Silver Willingness Pale Leafs Submission Unfathomable

Book:Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Source: Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

“"A cigar," said the altruist, "a cigar, my good man, I cannot give you. But any time you need a light, just come around; mine is always lit."”

Men Needs Giving Said Light Mines Good Man Altruism Lit Cigar

Author:Karl Kraus

“Psychology is as useless as directions for using poison.”

Psychology Useless Poison

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms