Quotes by Mary Oliver

“The poet dreams of the mountainSometimes I grow weary of the days, with all their fits and starts.I want to climb some old gray mountains, slowly, takingThe rest of my lifetime to do it, resting of...”

“The sweetness of dogs (fifteen) What do you say, Percy? I am thinkingof sitting out on the sand to watchthe moon rise. Full tonight.So we goand the moon rises, so beautiful it makes me shudder, mak...”

“On the beach, at dawn:Four small stones clearlyHugging each other.How many kinds of loveMight there be in the world,And how many formations might they makeAnd who am I everTo imagine I could knowSu...”

“In your handsThe dog, the donkey, surely they know They are alive.Who would argue otherwise?But now, after years of consideration, I am getting beyond that.What about the sunflowers? What about The...”

“How heron comesIt is a negligence of the mindnot to notice how at duskheron comes to the pond andstands there in his death robes, perfectservant of the system, hungry, his eyesfull of attention, hi...”

“Tom Dancers gift of a whitebark pine coneYou never know What opportunity Is going to travel to you, Or through you.Once a friend gave me A small pine cone- One of a few He found in the scatOf...”

“A carpenter is hired- a roof repaired, a porch built. Everything that can be fixed. June, July, August. Everyday we hear their laughter. I think of the painting by van Gogh, the man in the chair. E...”

“I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.”

“And now you'll be telling storiesof my coming backand they won't be false, and they won't be truebut they'll be real”

“The Fourth Sign of The Zodiac (Part 3) by Mary OliverI know, you never intended to be in this world.But youre in it all the same.So why not get started immediately.I mean, belonging to it.There is ...”

“That timeI thought I could notgo any closer to griefwithout dyingI went closer,and I did not die.Surely Godhad his hand in this,as well as friends.Still, I was bent,and my laughter,as the poet said...”

“Intellectual work sometimes, spiritual work certainly, artistic work always these are forces that fall within its grasp, forces that must travel beyond the realm of the hour and the restraint of t...”

“Oh Lord of melons, of mercy, though I am not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing towards you.”

“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

“Things take the time they take.Don't worry.How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?”

“How perfect to be aboard a ship withmaybe a hundred years still in my pocket.But it's late, for all of us,and in truth the only ship there isis the ship we are all onburning the world as we go.”

“You are young. So you know everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But, listen to me. Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without doubt,I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.”

“DAISIESIt is possible, I suppose that sometimewe will learn everythingthere is to learn: what the world is, for example,and what it means. I think this as I am crossingfrom one field to another, in...”

“I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple--or a green field--a place to enter, and in which to feel.”

“Language is rich, and malleable. It is a living, vibrant material, and every part of a poem works in conjunction with every other part - the content, the place, the diction, the rhythm, the tone-as...”