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 >>>
Dr. Obodubu Monday is recognised all over the world of marine kingdom, As one of the top fortunate and most powerful spell casters doctor of charms casts from the beginning of his ancestors ship until now Dr. Obodubu Monday lives strong among all other spell casters, there have never been any form of impossibility beyond the control of Dr. Obodubu Monday it doesn’t matter the distance of the person with the problems or situation, all you have to do is believe in the spell casting Dr. Obodubu Monday cast that works, he always warns never to get his charms cast if you do not believe or unable to follow his instruction. it is the assignment of the native doctor Dr. Obodubu Monday to offer services to those in need of spiritual assistance not minding the gravity of your situations or distance as long as water, sea, ocean, lake, river, sand, etc. are near you, then your problems of life would be controlled under your foot. if you need any spiritual help on any of these WhatsApp Doctor Obodubu on : +234 705 993 7909
Get Your Love Back
Fruit Of The Womb
Fibroid
Business Boom
Financial Breakthrough
Get Rich Without Ritual
Do As I Say
Bad Dream
Promise And Fail
Epilepsy
Land/Court Case
Mental Disorder
Political Appointment
Visa Approval
Cancer
Examination Success
Spend And Get Back
Good Luck
Natural Neath
Hypertension
Stroke
Sickle cell
Impotency
Win Court case
Promotion At Work
Commanding Tone
Protection Ring
Marriage Success
Love Ring
Favour Ring
Recover Lost Glory
Spiritual Power For Men Of God
Travel Success Ring
Job Success
lottery/ win
And Many, More
make haste to Dr Monday on WhatsApp +234 705 993 7909 for spiritual problem today and you will surely get solution to all your predicament
World’s Best Ssd Chemical and Activation Powder in South Africa +27735257866 Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Lesotho Namibia Qatar Egypt UAE USA UK Taiwan Indonesia Singapore Turkey Tanzania Hong Kong Ethiopia Eritrea Sudan Angola Mozambique Swaziland Oman Saudi Arabia Uganda Kenya Morocco Brunei Japan Thailand Algeria Tunisia Bahamas Somalia Angola Palau Lithuania Malaysia Myanmar Spain Kuwait Fiji Jordan Yemen Bahrain Philippines Israel Syria Italy DRC.. We stock limited SSD Solution for cleaning the ANTI-BREEZE BANK NOTE, or the ‘Black Money’. If you have the ‘Black Money’ and your cleaning solution has coagulated or gone hard with time, we can offer replacement at a reasonable charge SSD AUTOMATIC SOLUTION NEW EDITION for cleaning defaced currency Anti-breeze bank notes. Chemical to clean black money, ssd chemicals for sale, ssd solution chemical for cleaning black dollars, money cleaning chemicals, chemical for cleaning black money, ssd chemical for sale. CALL Agent Mbuga +27735257866 OR Email sheikhmbuga5@gmail.com http://mbugassdsolution.website2.me https://paparazaq.blogspot.com http://bestssdchemicalsolution.over-blog.com
Hello
YOU NEED QUALITY VISITORS FOR YOUR: garrisonkeillor.com ?
We Provide Website Traffic 100% safe for your site, from Search Engines or Social Media Sites from any country you want.
With this traffic, you can boost ranking in SERP, SEO, profit from CPM
CLAIM YOUR 24 HOURS FREE TEST HERE=> ventfara@mail.com
Thanks, Lori Cornwell
Hello
YOU NEED QUALITY VISITORS FOR YOUR: garrisonkeillor.com ?
We Provide Website Traffic 100% safe for your site, from Search Engines or Social Media Sites from any country you want.
With this traffic, you can boost ranking in SERP, SEO, profit from CPM
CLAIM YOUR 24 HOURS FREE TEST HERE=> ventfara@mail.com
Thanks, Bruno Hardey
Hello garrisonkeillor.com
Make Delicious African Soups Like a Pro in your own kitchen!
Indulge in becoming an expert at creating various and flavorful forms of Ghanaian Soups using tasty ingredients such as Tomatoes, Peanuts, Spinach, and more, through easy-to-follow cookbooks!
Browse Our Books https://zeep.ly/bLjg1
Thanks, Jaunita Layton
If you no longer wish to hear from us, please reply to this email.