Mourning the Loss of Mary Oliver

Photo: Nancy Bauer, OSB

Who will ask us such pertinent and potent questions as “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” (The Summer Day) So much of her poetry reflects this question from different angles. 

In her poems of nature, she asks if we are spending enough time outdoors, so we can observe the grasshopper “thoroughly wash her face” (The Summer Day),“hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing” (How I Go Into the Woods) or see “the face of the moose as sad as the face of Jesus” (Some Questions You Might Ask).

She told NPR in 2012 that poetry “mustn’t be fancy. I have the feeling that a lot of poets writing now, they sort of tap dance through it. I always feel that whatever isn’t necessary should not be in the poem.”

Who will ask if we have ever seen anything more wonderful than the sun that reaches out and warms you, fills you? (The Sun)

Who will tell us that we do not have to be good? (Wild Geese) Does any other poet tell us that we do not have to be good, and that we have nothing to prove?

She begins to sound prayer-like. Personally, I cannot wait until someone puts together a grand volume of Mary Oliver’s collected works, so I can use it to make my own private retreat. After all, her instructions for living a life, “Pay attention. / Be astonished. / Tell about it,” suit me perfectly. A great starting point for my retreat will definitely be The Journey because here she tells me that the only life I can save is my own.

Mary Jane Berger, OSB