mary oliver quotes

august

thinking of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth

august pt 2

this thick paw of my life

the turtle

her determination to complete what she was born to do

the turtle pt 2

She can't see herself apart from the rest of the world

morning poem

Every morning the world is created. Under the orange sticks of the sun

morning poem pt 2

whether or not you have ever dared to be happy, whether or not you have ever dared to pray.

UHB

The silence continues, deep and neutral, as I stand there, loving you.

UHB pt 2

tell myself, you are better, because my life without you would be a place of parched and broken trees.

Ghosts

In the book of the earth it is written:

nothing can die.

ghosts pt 2

Have you noticed? how the immense circles still,

stubbornly, after a hundred years, mark the grass

a visitor

I saw what a child must love,I saw what love might have donehad we loved in time.

a visitor pt 2

knocks wildly at the door

the fish

I am the fish, the fish glitters in me

the fish pt 2

we feed this feverish plot, we are nourished

by the mystery.

IBW

everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this

IBW pt 2

to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

wild geese

You do not have to be good.

wild geese pt 2

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

OOTT

like a sharp iron hoof,at the center of my mind.

OOTT pt 2

One or two things are all you need to travel over the blue pond