Product Description

In her first collection since winning the National Book Award in 1993, Mary Oliver writes of the silky bonds between every person and the natural world, of the delight of writing, of the value of silence. [Her] poems are...as genuine, moving and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring (New York Times).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #437525 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 72 pages

From Amazon.com
Wherein the poet continues her literary program with much the same sort of excellent poems about nature, the connection between the natural and the physical, and the tug-of-war between the familiar and the mysterious. I Found A Dead Fox, seemingly influenced by William Carlos Williams, gives one a good sense of the imagery in this fine collection. Oliver writes: "I found a dead fox / beside the gravel road,/ curled up inside the big/ iron wheel/ of an old tractor." Toads, mockingbirds, and afternoons of chopping wood fill these pages, as do beautiful, provocative images. Highly recommended.

From Booklist
The appetite for Oliver's poems has stayed strong after the very real pleasures of her National Book Award-winning New and Selected Poems (1992). This lovely volume contains 40 new poems, 40 blessings. Oliver's attentiveness to nature is active and hands-on. She walks through meadows, climbs trees, and, most of all, stares intently at copperheads, snails, hummingbirds, a dog devouring a dead fawn. She looks and looks, imprinting all that she sees deep in the glowing crucible of her mind, then pours her molten visions out into the molds of her poems where they cool to golden perfection. Elegant and bold, they warm back up once we hold them in our heart. We feel her exaltation over moments that change everything-- when deer walk up and touch her hands, when she watches hundreds of swans land on a lake in Ohio--and respond affirmatively to her admonishment: "to pay attention, this is our endless and proper work." We gladly pay attention to Oliver. Donna Seaman

Review
Wherein the poet continues her literary program with much the same sort of excellent poems about nature, the connection between the natural and the physical, and the tug-of-war between the familiar and the mysterious. I Found A Dead Fox, seemingly influenced by William Carlos Williams, gives one a good sense of the imagery in this fine collection. Oliver writes: "I found a dead fox / beside the gravel road,/ curled up inside the big/ iron wheel/ of an old tractor." Toads, mockingbirds, and afternoons of chopping wood fill these pages, as do beautiful, provocative images. Highly recommended. (Amazon.com Review )

The appetite for Oliver's poems has stayed strong after the very real pleasures of her National Book Award-winning New and Selected Poems (1992). This lovely volume contains 40 new poems, 40 blessings. Oliver's attentiveness to nature is active and hands-on. She walks through meadows, climbs trees, and, most of all, stares intently at copperheads, snails, hummingbirds, a dog devouring a dead fawn. She looks and looks, imprinting all that she sees deep in the glowing crucible of her mind, then pours her molten visions out into the molds of her poems where they cool to golden perfection. Elegant and bold, they warm back up once we hold them in our heart. We feel her exaltation over moments that change everything-- when deer walk up and touch her hands, when she watches hundreds of swans land on a lake in Ohio--and respond affirmatively to her admonishment: "to pay attention, this is our endless and proper work." We gladly pay attention to Oliver. (Booklist - Donna Seaman )

Customer Reviews

Celebrating Great Poetry
I do not like modern poetry as I find most of it to be either pathetic whining that the world will not devote itself to making the writer happy or meaningless babble where the writer thinks themselves clever for being undecipherable.

When I came across Mary Oliver's White Pine, I picked it up with some reluctance. I put it down with complete satisfaction.

Erudite, yet approachable. Deep, but not obtuse. Pointed observations are made, but without preachy self-centeredness. Modern poets can learn a lot from Mary Oliver.

Her descriptions and mastery of language are nothing short of pure magic, but I want to do more than reference Oliver's power of observation and description. Treating the reader with respect (and how rare that is in today's poetry), she lets us walk with her through the wooded hills, lush meadows, and seashores of her native Massachusetts, pointing out the common in new ways, making it all wondrous as if being seen for the first time. She has a philosophy of life that she shares gently, without feeling a need to beat it into the reader with all the subtlety of a crowbar.

I count myself fortunate to encounter Mary Oliver's work and I look forward to reading more of it. White Pine was a great place to start and it would be a great place for you to start too.

Very Impressed with this first exposure to Oliver.
An old man I know, who lives a reclusive life with 10 aging cats as his only companions, is the person I have to thank for turning me on to Mary Oliver. We live in a rural area and can vouch for the accuracy and honesty of her work. Deer, foxes, and a multitude of birds are common sights for us, as they are apparently for Mary Oliver, but through her poet's eye we are reminded not to take for granted our great good fortune in living here. We can read her words and say, "Yes. I remember that." After reading her poems and prose, left with the gift of her vision, what had simply been home and common place is now touched again with the kind of magic we felt when we first moved here 20 years ago.