Remembering Mary Oliver (1935-2019)
We are so sad that a great friend of ours has passed away. Beloved poet Mary Oliver passed away today at her home in Florida at the age of 83 after battling lymphoma.
Best-selling poet Mary Oliver (books by this author) was born in Maple Heights, Ohio (1935). As a child, she spent most of her time outside, wandering around the woods, reading and writing poems.
Oliver went to college in the ’50s at Ohio State University and Vassar, but dropped out. She made a pilgrimage to visit Edna St. Vincent Millay’s 800-acre estate in Austerlitz, New York. The poet had been dead for several years, but Millay’s sister Norma lived there along with her husband. Mary Oliver and Norma hit it off, and Oliver lived there for years, helping out on the estate, keeping Norma company, and working on her own writing. In 1958, a woman named Molly Malone Cook came to visit Norma while Oliver was there, and the two fell in love. A few years later, they moved together to Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Oliver said: “I was very careful never to take an interesting job. Not an interesting one. I took lots of jobs. But if you have an interesting job you get interested in it. I also began in those years to keep early hours. [...] If anybody has a job and starts at 9, there’s no reason why they can’t get up at 4:30 or 5 and write for a couple of hours, and give their employers their second-best effort of the day — which is what I did.”
She published five books of poetry, and still almost no one had heard of her. She doesn’t remember ever having given a reading before 1984, which is the year that she was doing dishes one evening when the phone rang and it was someone calling to tell her that her most recent book, American Primitive (1983), had won the Pulitzer Prize. Suddenly, she was famous. She didn’t really like the fame — she didn’t give many interviews, didn’t want to be in the news. She once wrote in an introduction to a poetry collection, “I have felt all my life that I was wise, and tasteful, too, to speak very little about myself — to deflect the curiosity in the personal self that descends upon writers, especially in this country and at this time, from both casual and avid readers.”
When editors called their house for Oliver, Cook would answer, announce that she was going to get Oliver, fake footsteps, and then get back on the phone and pretend to be the poet — all so that Oliver didn’t have to talk on the phone to strangers, something she did not enjoy. Cook was a photographer, and she was also Oliver’s literary agent. They stayed together for more than 40 years, until Cook’s death in 2005.
Oliver said: “I’ve always wanted to write poems and nothing else. There were times over the years when life was not easy, but if you’re working a few hours a day and you’ve got a good book to read, and you can go outside to the beach and dig for clams, you’re okay.”
Oliver’s books of poems include No Voyage (1963), The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems (1972), Twelve Moons (1978), The Leaf and the Cloud (2000), Owls and Other Fantasies (2003), Red Bird (2008), Dog Songs (2013), and Velocity (2015). Her most recent collection, Devotions, was released in Oct 2017.
Listen to poems from our archives >>>
More poems from the archives >>>
Read our poet interview >>>
Read NPR's obituary >>>
HOW I WON THE LOTTERY WITH LORD BUBUZA LOTTERY SPELL AND MY LIFE CHANGED: I’m a 26-year-old from Toronto and I just won $60 million in the lottery. Life was really hard before this and I was constantly struggling to pay my bills. While searching online for ways to turn things around, I came across stories of people saying that Lord Bubuza helped them win the lottery. I was curious and decided to give it a try. I reached out to him and he responded quickly. He told me what was needed to cast a lottery spell. After the spell was done, he gave me numbers to play. I used OLG’s Never Miss a Draw subscription and a few days later, I got a call saying I had won $60 million. I was completely shocked and overwhelmed with emotion. I never believed something like this could happen to me. I am truly grateful to Lord Bubuza for this incredible blessing. You can contact him via WhatsApp: +1 365 808 5313 or email: lordbubuzamiraclework@hotmail.com …
HOW I WON THE LOTTERY WITH LORD BUBUZA LOTTERY SPELL AND MY LIFE CHANGED: I’m a 26-year-old from Toronto and I just won $60 million in the lottery. Life was really hard before this and I was constantly struggling to pay my bills. While searching online for ways to turn things around, I came across stories of people saying that Lord Bubuza helped them win the lottery. I was curious and decided to give it a try. I reached out to him and he responded quickly. He told me what was needed to cast a lottery spell. After the spell was done, he gave me numbers to play. I used OLG’s Never Miss a Draw subscription and a few days later, I got a call saying I had won $60 million. I was completely shocked and overwhelmed with emotion. I never believed something like this could happen to me. I am truly grateful to Lord Bubuza for this incredible blessing. You can contact him via WhatsApp: +1 365 808 5313 or email: lordbubuzamiraclework@hotmail.com …!!!
David is totally top notch. I would never trust anyone with my problems. He is completely reliable and compassionate and his spells are truly some kind of powerful magic. David has definitely gotten me through some really tough times and my husband who have left me for another woman is now back with me with David spells. David is worth talking about and deserve recognition because is totally a genius. Anyone who needs help in his/her relationship should kindly contact Dr.David.
Email:awesomenesspelltemple@gmail.com is totally top notch. I would never trust anyone with my problems. He is completely reliable and compassionate and his spells are truly some kind of powerful magic. David has definitely gotten me through some really tough times and my husband who have left me for another woman is now back with me with David spells. dr david is worth talking about and deserve recognition because is totally a genius. Anyone who needs help in his/her relationship should kindly contact Dr DAVID
Email:awesomenesspelltemple@gmail.com
I URGENTLY NEED A LOVE SPELL CASTER TO HELP ME GET MY EX BACK CONTACT (DR DAVID) AWESOMESPELLTEMPLE@YAHOO.COM OR +2347051149457 I want to share my wonderful testimony how I got back my husband back, who I sworn ever to be with until when he left me to another woman for no reason and I try to make things work for both of us yet things were getting worse and I love him so much and there is nothing I could do to get my husband back until I saw a testimony share by a woman called Rachel from Florida on the internet talking about a powerful spell caster who brought her husband back within 24 hours and I decide to give it a try and to my greatest surprise he also did it for me just as he did for Rachel and I have a lot of people complaining of fake spell caster but this one I met was a real spell caster who help me to solve my problem I have no solution to, I introduce many of my best friends that have a similar problems, and their problem were solve with the great help of DR David, who help them to get back their lovers within 24 hours. I am so happy that my husband is back to me again, and the most surprising thing is that our love is very strong, every day is happiness and joy. and There is nothing like being with the man you love. I am so happy my love is back to me with the help of DR David . if you have similar problem I will advise you to contact him ,he is there to help you and put a smile on your face as he did to me and others you can also WhatsApp him +2347051149457 or Email him at :awesomenesspelltemple@gmail.com or view his website for more review: https://63e1caad0959a.site123.me/
When the Bible states we are gods of the earth I felt this truth during my encounter with Lord Meduza the spell master. I’m Denzel Chau and I’m here to present the individual who transformed my life from poverty to becoming a multimillionaire Jackpot victor. I reached out to Lord Meduza for assistance with winning numbers and he successfully helped me after casting a lottery spell for me. I utilized the numbers to enter the Jackpot lottery and I was announced as the winner of $368,000,000. Acquiring the numbers from Lord Meduza took 72 hours and I want to express my gratitude publicly to him for his remarkable service to humanity and for deciding to assist me during my life’s lowest moment. Not everyone is meant to win the lottery, but with the assistance of Lord Meduza, you can achieve it. To reach him drop a message to his email: lordmeduzatemple@hotmail.com or Whats App +1 807 907 2687. To know more, visit: lordmeduzatemple.com and you’ll appreciate it later.