Poets to Explore If You Love Mary Oliver

Five of my favorite poets who possess that special quality of helping us see the ordinary in all its glory

This post is for day 7 of Mary Oliver May, my daily journal + spring bucket list challenge to live out this month according to the themes and life of our muse, Mary Oliver. To have access to all daily prompts, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Whenever I tell people my favorite poet is Mary Oliver, two responses are common. From my friends who frequent less literary or bookish circles, there is slight recognition, and usually an ability to call to mind a quote from the poet. On the other end, saying Mary Oliver is your favorite poet among more literary intellectual types is at best viewed as naive and overly optimistic. Yet, one of my favorite things about Oliver is the knowledge that she has known darkness since a young age, and still remained in love with the world.

So while she is my favorite, here are five other poets and my favorite poems of theirs that helps me live and endure day to day in the wild of this world.

Wendy Cope: The Orange

My lore with this poem runs deep. I actually am responsible for the sound that trended at one time of this poem on TikTok (linked here), and because of this was sent a version by Faber publishing when they put out the poem again in a collection of hers. Getting free book mail because of my own creative endeavors? Astounding.

Ellen Bass: The Thing Is

Each day when I wake up this month, and at lunch, and again as the sun goes down, I'm bringing myself against a gentle prompt: How can I use this day well? How can kindness and optimism buffer me and help me choose in a more courageous, imaginative way?

In other words: “Yes, I will take you. I will love you, again.”

Louise Glück: Sunrise

This poem is actually a bit longer, so I’ve linked the rest here. The image of this poem has always struck me, particularly the line, “The hills weren’t going anywhere, the thyme and rosemary kept coming back.” There is something kindred about the dependability of the fruit-bearing bushes, the herbs, the hills. Like Oliver, there is a sense that we can in some ways know and be known by the Earth in a deeper sense than we give credit for in modern, Western society.

Wendell Berry: The Peace of Wild Things

Berry and Oliver are often thought of together—at least in terms of their time of writing and themes they cover. This poem of Berry’s—perhaps the most famous—brings us to similar images Oliver uses, and pulls to mind the sense of returning to some original pond, some source of deeper identity that we get from the Earth. There is a freedom in belonging—in becoming small and communal enough that loneliness is no longer a possibility in a world so alive.

Li-Young Lee: From Blossoms

From blossoms is a poem I first read in medical school, and five years later it is still so ripe with the vivacity it had when I first heard it. To hold death, labor, cruelty, the juice of a fruit, the light breeze, and brotherhood in a single poem—it’s like a miracle to me. It holds everything and allows it, just like Oliver’s poetry.

Do you have other writers who Mary Oliver is connected to in your mind?

Today’s Poem: See the above :)

Today’s Journal Prompt: What poems or pieces of words have been like a prayer or mantra for you? That recognized or unlocked something in you years ago?

Tiny Challenge: Write one of these OR the poem that came to mind as formative for you down. Pin it on a frame, to your fridge, or make it your phone background to let it exist alongside you this month.

Take care, and see you tomorrow!

Sincerely,

Margaret of Bad Art Every Day