A review by casakar
A Thousand Mornings: Poems by Mary Oliver

hopeful inspiring reflective

4.0

Once again, I find myself enthralled with Mary Oliver’s poetry. It’s hopeful, sweet, reflective, cognizant, appreciative, and emphasises the beauty of life and earth.

Memorable Excerpts:

“Of course I have to give up, but by then I’m half crazy with the wonder of it—the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.”
- FOOLISHNESS? NO, IT’S NOT

“THE GARDENER
Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, 
           have I
    come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?

        I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.

        Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a 
              simple man,
is tending his children, the roses.”

“And I suggest them to you also, that your spirit grow in curiosity, that your life be richer than it is, that you bow to the earth as you feel how it actually is, that we—so clever, and ambitious, and selfish, and unrestrained— are only one design of the moving, the vivacious many.”
- THE MOTH, THE MOUNTAINS, THE RIVERS

“It’s impossible not
to remember wild and want it back.”
- GREEN, GREEN IS MY SISTER’S HOUSE

“Every day I’m still looking for God
and I’m still finding him everywhere,”
- ON TRAVELLING TO BEAUTIFUL PLACES