In the poem “Some Herons,” she uses the characterizations of preacher and poet to differentiate between two birds when she could have used simply blue and white. The green fields wanting your voice, yourįilled with light, now the darkness growsĪnd it is filled with crooked things, bitter But she also acknowledges the Spirit of God within her, and the darkness of distance from God.Īnd with such gentleness. Nature appears repeatedly, as God’s creation is an avenue that draws Oliver’s heart to God. “Six Recognitions of the Lord” describes six diverse times of meditation. Oliver now lives in Florida.Ī daily walker, Oliver most frequently writes about nature, but also about God and about the human experience.įive poems in this book especially spoke to me. She and her partner of more than 40 years, photographer Molly Malone Cook, lived much of their life together (before Cook’s passing) in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her New and Selected Poems (1992) won the National Book Award. Her collection American Primitive won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She grew up in Ohio and started writing poetry when she was 14 years old.

Many poems made me stop to savor the images and emotions some of the older poems required a second or third reading for me to understand. As I made my way toward the end, the poems seemed rawer, though no less delightful or skillful. The more recent work is polished and smooth, a delight to read out loud or silently. The book is arranged in reverse chronological order, starting with the newer poems and ending with the oldest. I chose Devotions because it is a collection that spans her lifetime, with selections from her first book (published in 1963 when she was 28 years old) through her most recent (2015). I’ve occasionally read some of her poems, and I decided I needed one of her books. I’ve always felt I had a distant connection to her since she was on staff at Bennington College when my oldest daughter was a student there. I’ve often heard people mention Mary Oliver as one of their favorite poets.

Devotions by Mary Oliver