Poetry by Mary Oliver

 I am reading poetry by Mary Oliver at present, at the suggestion by a very good friend. I have downloaded 2 books from my library account by Mary Oliver: "Blue Horses," and "Upstream."  

 

It has been many years since I read poetry; like, REALLY read it to understand it, and ponder the meaning and discuss it with anyone in any literary capacity. It was back in college, really, but that was also a time when I realized that majoring in Literature was making me no longer enjoy literature (or other students in the major, if I'm honest).

With that said, I was thinking about how I'd know if I was getting out of the poetry what the poet meant to convey. I don't think I can actually know that unless I ask the poet, and that won't happen, so I decided that all I can do is try it and see and be happy with what meaning I personally get from the poems.

I've always loved quotes from books and bits of passages. I don't mean the kind of quotes that are famous or well known, just lines or groupings of words that seem to raise their figurative hand and say "I'm producing some noticeable feeling of... something... in you right now, right?" I scribble things in journals that don't get finished, or on a piece of paper in a notebook that I end up losing. Maybe that's ok. Maybe being organized and keeping them all in one organized place isn't the right way to do it. Maybe it's better to look at them like "catch and release" fishing: I catch it, enjoy it, and then it is released back into the wilds of my life and mind.

In any event, I thought I'd start this blog post while I was starting to read "Blue Horses" and jot down some lines that raised their hands at me.

Rumi

"But I heard less of the crazy talk and
a lot more of the wise talk and I was
hopeful enough to keep listening

until the day I found myself
transformed into an entire garden
of roses."

First Yoga Lesson

"I lay on the floor, exhausted.
But to be a lotus in the pond
opening slowly, and very slowly rising-
that I could do."

Stebbin's Gulch

"as for purpose

there is none,
it is simply
one of those gorgeous things
that was made

to do what it does perfectly
and to last,
as almost nothing does,
almost forever."

Angels

"I have a lot of edges called Perhaps
and almost nothing you can call
Certainty.