Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver: A Read with Jenna Pick

I bought this when a close friend of mine recommended it- she knew I was missing my mom while going through health complication which required another surgery only3 months free the first surgery. I know I will be re-reading this book for years to come… anytime I need some comforts

I love Mary Oliver so this was a must. The book did come with a small tear on the bottom left but I fixed it with some glue. I honestly really didn’t mind much but I know that might deter some. Beside that its good quality.I added pictures of the table of contents so you could see what poems are on here. (Hence the 5 million pictures) My favorite being Wild Geese.

very interesting book of poetry

Excellent book of devotions & relates well to our current events. Highly recommend!

This book is a reorder, and likely will be ordered again. It took longer than usual to arrive(???)The book, “Devotions” is a work of real beauty.

Mary Oliver is a truly inspiring poet. Her descriptions of nature are absolutely stunning and moving. Once I read one of her poems, I knew I had to purchase a collection she wrote. She is a national treasure.

such an amazing selection of works!! highly recommend for anyone who enjoys the environment, animals, and beautiful prose

Mary Oliver’s poetry is truly beautiful, stunning, and touches the heart as it opens your eyes to the wonder and magic of life all around us. Each poem is to be savored and delightfully enjoyed as tou sit with it and let it sink in and transform you.

I am in love with this collection of poetry. Oliver has such a way of capturing the human experience in her observations of the quiet moments of life. I’ve gifted this book to several of my loved ones and it is always a hit!

It was a gift to my daughter and she loves it!

Se lo regalé a una amiga a quien le gusta Mary Oliver. Quedó encantada.

I bought this book because it was recommended to me. I work with the artists and performers. I found it to be a great read and had a lot of helpful insight into the artist’s mind.

This is a collection of Mary Oliver's poems. They are beautiful. It makes me want to go into the woods, or to the beach, or anything outside in nature.

A breathtaking collection that invites readers into Mary Oliver's world of nature, introspection, and profound beauty. Each poem feels like a gentle nudge to pause, breathe, and truly observe the world around us. This book is perfect for anyone looking to connect with nature or seeking solace in the written word. If you’re a fan of poetry or just in need of a little inspiration, I highly recommend picking up this collection. It’s a treasure that I’ll cherish for years to come.

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Mary Oliver's *Devotions* is a breathtaking collection that distills the essence of her life's work into one volume. The anthology brings together over 200 poems, offering a profound exploration of nature, spirituality, and the human experience. Oliver's language is both simple and profound, with each poem inviting the reader to pause and reflect on the beauty and mystery of the world around us.Her observations are sharp yet gentle, capturing the sacred in the everyday. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to her work, *Devotions* is a treasure trove that provides comfort, inspiration, and a deep sense of connection to the natural world. It's the kind of book you'll return to again and again, finding new layers of meaning with each read.

It’s Mary Oliver so it’s a great book of poetry & reveals enough slices of her work to tease us into loving her…a combination of Wendell Berry, Robert Frost And others whose main work always uses nature to cast the poems. My favorites were “mornings at black water” and “to Walden” etc.

Two types of poets come to mind. First you have Allen Ginsberg whose poem Howl has the greatest super charged opening since Homer’s the Iliad 2,800 years earlier and which set the stage for the chaos of the 1960s which were to follow in a few years. Then you have the poet that permeates great sensitivity to the point of being not an extra sense but of a fifth taste that being umami. Sappho nearly had it 2,600 years ago but for the necessary spark and Emily Dickinson if she cared to publish would have wished she had it. The late Mary Oliver clearly had it as seen in many of her poems in this collection of her works. She had the spark that was such a near miss for Sappho. Walt Whitman who had a foot in both camps was closer to Homer and Ginsberg then he ever was to Oliver lacking again that spark of sensitivity, of umami. And it’s almost as if Mary Oliver knew what she possessed that all others lacked back to antiquity when she tosses out a poem with Lucretius in its title. And when all the other poets, from Byron and Shelley to Frost are measured against her and her lyre song they seem either clanky or so over the top as to be what in acting is called a ham bone.

Mary Oliver(1935-2019)Bestselling Poet, Winner of the National Book Award & The Pulitzer Prize“Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that." The main theme the late Oliver shares is her abiding love and deep regard for the natural world. It is the fabric she prefers to lay her words on and wrap them up in and where she always found not only peace, but understanding of the importance of taking time to truly smell, touch and honor the earth. Though she has penned hundreds of poems, here are a few that I found especially notable. She also wrote many nature-themed essays but gave very few interviews feeling that her work could speak for itself. She was a New York Times bestselling poet with a wise and generous wisdom and an intimate respect for the world not of our making. Here are a few examples of her work;Mornings At Blackwater For years, every morning, I drank From Blackwater Pond. It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt, The feet of ducks. And always it assuaged me from the dry bowl of the very far past. What I want to say is that the past is the past, and the present is what your life is, and you are capable of choosing what that will be, darling citizen. So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.Praying It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak. Three Things To Remember As long as you’re dancing, you can break the rules. Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules. Sometimes there are no rules. For many, poetry has to rhyme, for others it has to adhere to a particular structure or have a certain word count and the variety of forms have accumulated over time. For Mary Oliver it had to express her observations of the natural world and perhaps she said it best, “When you write a poem, you write it for anybody and everybody.”• Poetry tells a story• What’s your poem?

A mere two years before her death, this anthology was published of 200 of Mary Oliver's poems. Suprisingly, it is arranged in reverse chronological order from 2015 to 1963. Nonetheless, it provides a unique perspective allowing the poetry lover to see how Oliver honed her style to be more like Robert Frost: terse but full of meaning than her longer, earlier pieces. Like a finely plaited braid, Mary Oliver entwines three major themes.She is a deist and her God is a Christian God. Though she quotes from both the Old and New Testaments, her language reflects more of the New replete with words like: grace, prayer, rapture and praise. She has no doubt that there is a God for the reader need only see dawn conquer the darkness to know each day is a recreation of the first day. Though she never overtly writes of resurrection, her frequent reflections on death suggest an eternity of existence. In WHITE OWL FLIES INTO AND OUT OF THE FIELD, Oliver writes "...so I thought maybe death isn't darkness, after all, but so much light wrapping itself around us- as soft as feathers-that we are instantly weary of looking and looking and shut our eyes not with amazement, and let ourselves be carried, as though the translucence of mica to the river that is without the least dapple or shadow- that is nothing but light-scalding, aortal light- in which we are washed and washed out of our bones."Another frequent theme is the wonder and beauty of nature. In the style of Walt Whittman, she praises all forms of fauna, flora and aquatic environments from the tiny puddle to the vast ocean. She marvels at the blue of the sky, the blackness of night, the moon's refelctions amid the stars, "those hot, hard watchmen of the night." Looking and listening are our major tasks to appreciate nature fully. She writes, "To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work." In her poem HUM, Oliver is literally "buzzing" with excitement and creativity as she follows a worker bee gather and carry pollen to the hive.Finally, Oliver underscores her joy in love and companionship. There are hints throughout her poems of a lonely and perhaps neglected childhood. She relishes sharing food and drink with her partner and dogs and the joy of physical closeness. She shares her saddness at the loss of a friend whose "closeness was like a flame, and now I am forever cold..."In THE LOON ON OAK-HEAD POND, she writes of listening to the call of loons stopping over on the pond while heading home to the north "...you come every afternoon and wait to hear it. you sit a long time, quiet, under the thick pines, in the silence that follows. as though it were your own twilight. as though it were your own vanishing song." This marvelous collection of Oliver's poems keeps her voice forever resonating in the reader's mind and heart.

If you only ever bought one collection of Mary Oliver's poems, this should be it. And if you have others, you should own this one, too. " Devotions" is an apt title. Due to the current climate of distressing politics, a sociopathic president, and world tragedies, even though I create programs for NPR, I keep the radio off first thing in the morning. Instead, I choose to start my day sitting outside with this book, a cup of a coffee, birdsong, and the company of my cat.FROM THE BOOK OF TIMEI rose this morning early as usual, and went to my desk,But it's spring.and the thrush is in the woods,somewhere in the twirled branches, and he is singing.And now, so, I am standing by the open door.And now I am stepping down onto the grass.I am touching a few leaves, I am noticing the way the yellow butterfliesmove together, in a twinkling cloud, over the field.And I am thinking: maybe just looking and listeningis the real work.Maybe the world, without usis the real poem. --Mary Oliver