Thursday Thirteen No. 32: Mary Oliver's 'Red Bird'

"Are you familiar with the poetry of Mary Oliver?" I asked a student once in the hope of beginning a conversation on the poem "Wild Geese," a gem that contains the lines

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.

en route to the statement "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,/the world offers itself to your imagination."

This was the line I wanted in the hope of beginning a conversation on inspiration.

"I think so," the young woman squinted, the better to scan a distant memory. "I think that's that woman who writes about, like, her dog, Percy, I think and trees. That her?"

"You can start there," I said. "And you will get to Mary Oliver."

Because Mary Oliver's poetry is about this moment in this world in this light in this weather, alone or with the dog or on the way to something or nothing. It's about being here and loving it.

I believe, there is nothing worth saying about Mary Oliver beyond that. Better to spend the time reading her work or revisiting the magic of the landscape of your life through her words.

Her new collection Red Bird is her 12th volume of published poems. Here she speaks to the beauty of the ordinary, the environment, and the people of the world who suffer at the hands of those who love power.

The world offers itself to your imagination. Accept the invitation and walk with this wonderful woman from Provincetown, Massachusetts.

May these 13 lines tantalize you:

1. "I am a God-fearing feeder of birds./I know he has many children,/not all of them bold in spirit." (from "Red Bird")

2. "I see you in all your seasons/making love, arguing, talking about God/as if he were an idea instead of the grass,/instead of the stars, the rabbit caught/in one good teeth-whacking hit and brought/home to the den." (From "Straight Talk from Fox")

3. "...I will live/nowhere except here, by Ocean, trusting/equally in all the blast and welcome/of her sorrowless, salt self." (From "Ocean")

4. "Because, Sir, you have given [the panther],/for your own reasons,/everything that he needs:/leaves, food, shelter;/a conscience/ that never blinks." (From "With the Blackest of Inks")

5. "It is a serious thing/just to be alive/on this fresh morning/in this broken world." (From "Invitation")

6. "The ripeness/of the apple/is its downfall." (From "The Orchard")

7. "How many small, available things/are in this world/that aren't/pieces of gold/or power--/that nobody owns/or could buy even/for a hillside of money--/that just float around the world...." (From "Summer Story")

8. "I listen hard/to the exuberances/of the mockingbird and the owl,/the waves and the wind./And then, like peace after perfect speech,/ such stillness." (From "The Teachers")

9. "Books? says Percy. I ate one once, and it was enough./Let's go." (From "Percy and Books (Eight)")

10."Let the world/have its way with you,/luminous as it is/with mystery/and pain--/graced as it is/with the ordinary." (From "Summer Morning")

11. "About tomorrow, who knows anything,/Except that it will be time, again,/for the deepening and quieting of the spirit."(From "Swimming, One Day in August")

12. "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 life/your life." (From "Morning at Blackwater")

13. “I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable/beauty of heaven/where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes/and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.” (From “Red Bird Explains Himself”)