A review by emmalong
Winter Hours by Mary Oliver

4.0

Mary Oliver is one of the most amazing things to have happened to me. her poetry speaks to many, but my own personal relationship with her words have sparked a necessity to read everything she has written and more poetry in general. i picked this up on a whim from the library and had to stop myself from flying through it. Oliver recounts a few disjointed moments in her life through essays and poems and delves into the lives of four prominent poets in her life and learning. she says in this: “this is called: happiness. this is called: stay away from me with your inches, and your savings accounts, and your plums in a jar. your definitive anything. and if life is so various, so shifting, what could we possibly say of death, that black leaf, that has in it any believable finality?” she completely astounds me, makes me stop in my tracks, and follow the sound of her voice. i will read it all