Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? / Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Mary Oliver More Quotes by Mary Oliver More Quotes From Mary Oliver Wild sings the bird of the heart in the forests of our lives. Mary Oliver heart forests bird Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? Mary Oliver breathing life travel Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed. Mary Oliver blessed attitude needs I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything - other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world's otherness is antidote to confusion - that standing within this otherness - the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books - can re-dignify the worst-stung heart. Mary Oliver heart character book There is only one question: / how to love this world. Mary Oliver how-to-love this-world world A lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of this world and the responsibilities of your life. Mary Oliver responsibility long world 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. Mary Oliver beach book years Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. Mary Oliver let-me what-matters mind I believe art is utterly important. It is one of the things that could save us. We don't have to rely totally on experience if we can do things in our imagination.... It's the only way in which you can live more lives than your own. You can escape your own time, your own sensibility, your own narrowness of vision. Mary Oliver imagination believe art He is exactly the poem I wanted to write. Mary Oliver wanted writing Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life? Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath? Mary Oliver humble love world The stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own. Mary Oliver stars nature clouds And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away from wherever you are, to look for your soul? Mary Oliver care soul looks Come with me into the woods where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible. Mary Oliver doe forever spring Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance. Mary Oliver exuberance be-good The sweetness of dogs (fifteen) What do you say, Percy? I am thinking of sitting out on the sand to watch the moon rise. Full tonight. So we go and the moon rises, so beautiful it makes me shudder, makes me think about time and space, makes me take measure of myself: one iota pondering heaven. Thus we sit, I thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s perfect beauty and also, oh! How rich it is to love the world. Percy, meanwhile, leans against me and gazes up into my face. As though I were his perfect moon. Mary Oliver grateful dog beautiful You, too, can be carved anew by the details of your devotion. Mary Oliver renewal details devotion The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth, it can lie down like silk breathing or toss havoc shoreward; it can give gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can sweet-talk entirely. As I can too, and so, no doubt, can you, and you. Mary Oliver sea sweet lying But I also say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it's done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive. Mary Oliver holiness light done Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. Mary Oliver joyfulness small-gifts dog
