And if you’re quite familiar with Mary Oliver’s books, you have probably encountered this lovely and uplifting small hardbound volume of Upstream. It’s a collection of essays of Mary Oliver that provides anecdotes and meditations, her life as a writer and as a lover of nature. It was published in October 2016.
Thus the book begins with these words: “In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”
Unlike her poetry, these essays paint a fuller picture of how she was as a writer, how her life revolved around those things that ordinarily we wouldn’t even appreciate, turtle eggs and hatchlings, owls, spiders, trees, gulls, sunflowers and the sea. She touched on such renowned authors like Emerson, Whitman and Poe. Learning something about the lives of these writers made me appreciate their words more.
I began reading this book two years ago but I read the essays in increments preferring the lovely poems in her other books. You could actually read it in just one sitting but imagining those scenes described in the book makes you pause and think about life.
At the end of the book, she gave a short tribute to the place where she lived for fifty years in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She ended her prose with: “I don’t know if I am heading toward heaven or that other, dark place, but I know I have already lived in heaven for fifty years. Thank you, Provincetown”.
It’s nice how you get so much reward from her writing, Arlene. I am sure she would loved to have known that.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks Pete. A gifted writer, a gifted poet. I just love her words.
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I have not read any of her work Arlene but she sure has a beautiful way with words.
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Do try to read one of her books Brigid, I am pretty sure you’ll it 🙂
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I think so too.
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It’s the first time to know about her, but sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing, Arlene
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Try reading some of her poems online Nahla. You might like them too.
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I will, Arlene. Thanks so much
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You’re welcome!
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I can feel your love for this authors work.
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Oh yes, I love her words. they are so inspiring and uplifting.
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I saw two wonderful photos on line of her and her dogs. You would smile.
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Wow!
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I’ve never come across Mary Oliver but this book does sound good, Emerson, Whitman, and Poe, and also great visual imagery, sounds absolutely gorgeous.
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I highly recommend her books. Some poems are published online.
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I shall seek them out when I get some time to truly appreciate them.
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That would be nice 🙂
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Arlene, your love of reading and sharing it is a beautiful thing. I had never heard of Mary Oliver until reading about her on your blog. The snippets of her writing you’ve shared have awakened a curiosity in me to want to read some of her work. Tomorrow I’m going to the library and will look for a book by her! 🙋
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Wow, so glad Sabine that you got curious about her. She’s truly a gifted writer. This is one of her famous poems. It’s called Wild Geese.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
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💖
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