Mary Oliver

In this stunning collection of new poems, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life’s work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature. Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and impermanence. Whether considering a bird’s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees, or the artworks of Franz Marc, Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments. At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes. Humorous, gentle, and always honest, Oliver is a visionary of the natural world.

Poems

Blue Horses

Presents a collection of poems that reflects the author's signature imagery-based language and her observations of the unaffected beauty of nature.

karina

How desperate I would be if I couldn't remember the sun rising, if I couldn't remember trees, rivers; if I couldn't even remember, beloved, your beloved name.

You could live a hundred years, it's happened. Or not. l am speaking from the fortunate platform of many years, none of which, I think, I ever wasted. Do you need a prod? Do you need a little darkness to get you going?

By next week the violets will be blooming. Anyway, this was my delicious walk in the rain. What was it actually about?

Think about what it is that music is trying to say. It was something like that.

ame 

 Well, there's life, and then there's later. Maybe it's myself that I miss. The field, and the sparrow singing at the edge of the woods. And the doe that one morning came upon me unaware, all tense and gorgeous

What kind of life is it always to plan and do, to promise and finish, to wish for the near and the safe?

maia

Slowly the morning climbs toward the day. As for the poem, not this poem but any poem, do you feel its sting? Do you feel its hope, its entrance to a community? Do you feel its hand in your hand?

Bless the notebook that I always carry in my pocket. And the pen. Bless the words with which I try to say what I see, think, or feel. With gratitude for the grace of the earth. The expected and the exception, both. For all the hours I have been given to be in this world.

No matter what the world does, some things don't alter with time. The first kiss, the first death. The sorrowful sweetness of rhyme.

let’s live (art is so wonderful. i forgot just how much poetry is meant to be read and enjoyed. this little life is beautiful if we stop to smell the roses, and say hello to the blue horses.)

“stay young always, in the theater of your mind.”

my favorite(s) from this collection are good morning, crazy little love song, and a little ado about this and that. 

let’s live (art is so wonderful. i forgot just how much poetry is meant to be read and enjoyed. this little life is beautiful if we stop to smell the roses, and say hello to the blue horses.)

“stay young always, in the theater of your mind.”

my favorite(s) from this collection are good morning, crazy little love song, and a little ado about this and that. 

Megan Parrott

"Dog Songs" will always be my favorite, but I love this collection's connection with the world around us. From the poem Loneliness: "Oh, Mother Earth, your comfort is great, your arms never withhold."

Maria

“Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. / Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God /that is inside each of us”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Primitive presents a new collection of poems that reflects her signature imagery-based language and her observations of the unaffected beauty of nature.--Publisher's description.

Erin Darlyn

Mary Oliver is my favorite poet. I have not yet read all of her works, but every volume I have read has included many poems and lines that have deeply resonated. The way she writes about nature is so beautiful. 

I really enjoyed Blue Horses. Some of my favorite poems within it were I Don’t Want to Be Demure or Respectable, Blueberries, Such Silence, Watering the Stones, On Not Mowing the Lawn, and What Gorgeous Thing.

luca

I don’t want eventual,
I want soon.
It’s 5 a.m. It’s noon.
It’s dusk falling to dark.
I listen to music.
I eat up a few wild poems
while time creeps along
as though it’s got all day.
This is what I have.
The dull hangover of waiting,
the blush of my heart on the damp grass,
the flower-faced moon.
A gull broods on the shore
where a moment ago there were two.
Softly my right hand fondles my left hand
as though it were you.

Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually.Maybe the desire to make something beautifulis the piece of God that is inside each of us.In this stunning collection, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life's work. Herons, sparrows, owls and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry and impermanence. Whether considering a bird's nest, the seeming patience of oak trees or the paintings of Franz Marc, Mary Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.Blue Horses asks what it truly means to belong to this world and to live in it attuned to all its changes. 'To be human,' she shows us, 'is to sing your own song'.

heather

I'll always be here for Mary Oliver's use of natural imagery!

Some of my favourite poems in this collection includes: No Matter What, If I Wanted a Boat, The Oak Trees Love Patience and The Country of the Trees. 

Some poems felt so realistic yet so ethereal at the same time. I feel this is so because Mary Oliver seems to situate herself within these poems (quite evident in the frequent way she uses first person perspective + simple descriptions of ordinary actions) and she constantly draws on the intimate connection she has with nature.

Eliana Mor

I would die for anything Mary Oliver writes

Simar Gautam 

(3) I definitely liked Felicity better BUT I wasn't really in the mood to read poetry- so maybe that's why I liked this less. I feel like if I reread this while in a different state of mind I'll rate it higher.

Melody Izard

Mary Oliver observes and reflects those everyday items that we might just pass by.

i adore mary oliver’s work!! favourites: i don’t want to be demure or respectful, good morning, the fourth sign of the zodiac

Lucía RG

"Let the blades of grass surge back from the last
cutting.
Or, if you want to be poetic: the leaves of grass".

Emily

I normally don't ready poetry, so I'm sure I'm not able to do this text the justice it deserves & fully sit with all the meaning and feeling behind it, but I still deeply enjoyed this collection of poems & was genuinely moved by it. I thought the shift in the tone and urgency of the poems after Fourth Sign in the Zodiac was really interesting (and so human and so heartbreaking). On my first read, The Country of the Trees is my favorite poem in this collection, but I loved many of these poems and I'm positive my "favorite" will shift and change as I return to this collection.

Blue Horses Poems

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