Why I Wake Early: New Poems

Well - darn it! You are always asking me for feedback and I thought that was what you wanted again - I love Mary Oliver's poetry and am accumulating all that I can. This has a few of my favorite poems in it.

Oliver's command of language and its imagery transports the reader to a long forgotten and yet a place so near one only needs to look inside oneself. Reading this art was nourishing for my soul and the spirit of leadership that is within each of us.

when inspiration fails, emphasis and repetition feel the void.
strengh needs no boasting.
true happiness is best implied - not proclaimed.
one senses Mary Oliver's old mastery
- alas waning in a forest of exclamation points...

Buyer beware when purchasing new books for gifts. I purchased two copies of this wonderful book of poetry, one after the other, both of which were identified as new. Both copies have noticeable flaws. This wouldn't have mattered so much if I hadn't been buying the volume as a gift for an elementary school teacher who is now 90 years old, and who introduced me to good poetry in the 5th Grade. The poetry is wonderful. The condition of the books when they arrived was not. When I opened the first one that I had ordered, so as to inscribe it, I saw that a small spider had been smushed between the cover and the title page, leaving a stain. Not a good page on which to write an inscription. So I ordered a second volume, thinking to just keep this first one for myself, and expecting to get a volume in new and unblemished condition. However, the dust cover on the second volume has grease spots on it, as well as a folded-back crease on the bottom of the front cover. So ... I swapped out the dust cover of the first book and put it on the second one, which will now work fine as a gift. I'm keeping the other combo, deceased spider, greasy dust jacket and all, for my own bookshelf.

Mary, you leave me speechless whenever I try to review your poetry books. Not only because I want to avoid repeating myself review after review, but also because your work is simply that beautiful, that breathtaking, that life-affirming. For a long time, I thought that my gratitude practice was the main reason why I take the time to notice the beauty of everyday life. Now, I know I have two reasons: my gratitude practice, and your poetry. Each poem is like a flower, sometimes growing in expected ways, but always unfurling its petals at the end, and perhaps dropping a seed that takes root in your heart forever.

(I know this isn't an actual review, but I love this collection so much that I don't know what else to say. So I hope that paragraph still expresses that sentiment, and how strongly I recommend it to anyone who reads and appreciates poetry.)

Favorites: "Bones," "The Poet Goes to Indiana," "Look and See," "At Black River," "Something," "Bear," "The Old Poets of China," "Mindful"

I absolutely love Mary Oliver, and this particular book of her poems is just lovely. I gave it to my mother, who (you guessed it!) wakes early and spends a good part of every day reveling in nature. She loved it too! Highly, highly recommended.

Mary Oliver has written a beautiful collection of 47 poems that shows her love of nature, and really why she does wake early to greet the day. One of the qualities of her writing that I most enjoyed is that she expresses her intricate love of nature with a joy that lacks sentimentality. She spends her time determining what she is seeing and hearing and writes about that rather than looking inward to how she feels about everything. Therefore, her joy and feeling come through in the words she chooses to describe her subjects, and not in a list of subjective feelings. For me, that made her poetry universal and a communication that I could share in. I highly recommend this book for both the poetry and nature lover.

Why wonder about the loaves and fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
...
...
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.

Savoring Mary Oliver's poems bring me joy, they are a respite from the news of our times and a balm to my soul. The theme throughout this book is to pay attention, to stop and watch and be amazed.

Look and See
This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew
to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back
of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.
The duck, too, was not provoked,but, you might say, was
laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over
our house was casually scratching
its stomach of white feathers with one
pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we
only look, and see.

Last night I attended a talk at The Wisconsin Book Festival by Rick Bass and Terry Tempest Williams. Their theme was to not only pay attention to the wonders of nature, but to pay attention to what is happening to it, local warming, the lack of water in the West, the disruption of migration patterns and habitat. Pay Attention.

This is a lovely, uplifting book of poems. It celebrates the gifts life provides if we would only wake and observe the natural world. These poems bring solace to the soul. They seem to come from a place where one's life is winding down, slowing to a comfortable and relaxed peace - as if Mary Oliver is held in the arms of the natural world near the end of life and describing how wonderful it all is.

This book tells us it is enough to be at peace with the world and to enjoy what we've been given. Now in her seventies, she may have moved beyond the inner struggles of past and worries of future. The poems in Why I Wake Early, seem to say that for her it is now enough to observe, describe, and enjoy what nature offers. She does not need to wrestle with meaning - just be and enjoy.

Perhaps I am too cynical, certainly less evolved or mature. However, I was hoping for more poems that touched upon the conflicts and cruelty we observe and survive. I wanted to experience more poems with challenge and pain - like those in American Primitive. I was hoping for poems that moved through beauty and darkness, then resolved in a wiser, deeper peace.

So, I was disappointed because the poems in Why I Wake Early lacked angst and profound observations. Don't get me wrong - these poems are eloquent, beautifully descriptive and gentle - full of appreciation and respect for the natural world. They are each a gift of thanks.

I just happen to prefer the depth and range of her earlier poems. I recommend new readers get and read her Selected Poems first, then read this book. All of her books are treasures, including this one - so whatever you do, read Mary Oliver's work. I've given books by her to many friends, and each of them comments on what amazing poems they are. She is a remarkable, gifted poet - one of the best in America.

This slim volume is so aptly named - it could

be the opposite of a lullaby - a book filled with

"songs to awaken by".....

A pure celebration of life, I slowly reveled in

each poem... at times gasping out loud by

the gentle ferocity of the words and imagery.

Favorites include "Where Does the Temple

End and Where Does it Begin?" and "Just a

Minute" said a voice.

I know this is a title I will read over and over and

over and over again..........

In her book "Why I Wake Early", Mary Oliver delivers a collection of poems that are deeply inspired by the natural world as a macrocosm that is eternally beautiful as it unfolds around us and delivers a munificently generous bounty that we so often take for granted. In her verse, Oliver speaks of the timelessness of our world that she is captivated by as it was born before man and will more than likely continue after his demise. In her poem "Bone", Oliver's description of the ocean's endless currents and tides that are endlessly "unfolding over and over / its time-ridiculing roar" suggests a sort of perpetual motion that is rhythmic and beautiful in its simplicity. Her description of the sun in "Why I Wake Early" the author describes a beneficent star that serves to warm and delight all of the earth's inhabitants; whether she believes they are deserving or not; "And the windows of, even, / the Miserable and the crotchety -," as a gift that must be appreciated by all creatures because it provides not only life, but the stuff of happiness.

Oliver's work appears to reflect her direct observation of the natural world around her and how each creature plays a role in its development as it unfolds. In "Song of Builders", Oliver sits on a hillside to contemplate God in the natural theatre of outdoors when she spots a single cricket as "it was mowing the grains of the hillside / this way and that / How great was its energy / how humble its effort." in a manner that seemed futile in terms of its diminutive size and furious effort when compared to the grass that it was trying to consume. From this observation, we find that our individual lives play an instrumental role in the construction of our world that revolves around a large sun in what sometimes appears to be a coldly indifferent universe. Oliver's triumph in verse can be found in her ability to reveal the beauty and majesty of the natural world by describing it in loving detail as it actually appears - not as she would like it to appear. Her expression is her craft and her honesty is her gift.

This is what I'm talking about...

There are things you can't reach. But

you can reach out to them, and all day long.

The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.

And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

From Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?

Certainly, Mary Oliver knows this haiku by Zen poet, Basho?

The temple bell stops

but I still hear the sound coming

out of the flowers.

What poem could you write?

I really don't know much about poetry, except that I like that it seems to be less fettered by rules. I like it for its rhythms and possibility and for its hope. A friend showed me a poem of Mary Oliver's this spring, This Morning I Watched the Deer, and I thought more people will read poetry if they are shown this poem.

Mary Oliver has taken the everyday, simple beauty in Nature (which we oftentimes take for granted) and wraps it in simple, lovely prose in this delicious little book.

To be savored again and again.... definitely.

Mary Oliver newer fails her fans ! Everyone should read this lovely, earthy poet. " The Poet goes to Indiana" was a favorite for me....Sent the poem to a friend that grew up in Indiana and he returned with a rememberaces of a horse nuzzeling him in his youth....he had forgotten all about that beautiful time. Isn't what poetry is all about ! Thank you Mary O

diane

Is obvious. To waken the senses of those who will open up to all the world offers. Like Mary Oliver.
Do you hear the call of the early morning? Listen with Mary and join in the secrets proclaimed loudly, if only one would hear.