Life is much the same when it's going well-- resonant and unremarkable. But who, not under disaster's seal, can understand what life is like when it begins to crumble? Mary Oliver More Quotes by Mary Oliver More Quotes From Mary Oliver Along with the differences that abide in each of us, there is also in each of us a maverick, the darling stubborn one who won't listen, who insists, who chooses preference or the spirited guess over yardsticks or even history. I suspect this maverick is somewhat what the soul is, or at least that the soul lives close by and companionably with its agitating and inquiring force. Mary Oliver stubborn differences soul I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention. Mary Oliver how-precious-life-is prayer attention Poetry is a serious business; literature is the apparatus through which the world tries to keep intact its important ideas and feelings. Mary Oliver poetry feelings ideas I got saved by poetry. And I got saved by the beauty of the world. Mary Oliver beauty-of-the-world saved world So every day So every day I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth of the ideas of God, one of which was you. Mary Oliver cry beautiful ideas What can we do about God, who makes and then breaks every god-forsaken, beautiful day? Mary Oliver beautiful-day break beautiful Today again I am hardly myself. It happens over and over. Mary Oliver happens today Also I wanted to be able to love And we all know how that one goes, don't we? Slowly Mary Oliver know-how able wanted The sea is the most beautiful face in our universe. Mary Oliver sea faces beautiful I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery. Mary Oliver fire white believe A mind that is lively and inquiring, compassionate, curious, angry, full of music, full of feeling, is a mind full of possible poetry. Mary Oliver inquiring mind feelings When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it is over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world. Mary Oliver real inspirational life After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. Then reimagine the world. Mary Oliver resilience childhood survival Sing, if you can sing, and it not still be musical inside yourself. Mary Oliver musical stills ifs With words, I could build a world I could live in. I had a very dysfunctional family, and a very hard childhood. So I made a world out of words. And it was my salvation. Mary Oliver dysfunctional-family childhood world Far off in the red mangroves an alligator has heaved himself onto a hummock of grass and lies there, studying his poems. Mary Oliver red study lying The poet dreams of the classroom I dreamed I stood up in class And I said aloud: Teacher, Why is algebra important? Sit down, he said. Then I dreamed I stood up And I said: Teacher, I’m weary of the turkeys That we have to draw every fall. May I draw a fox instead? Sit down, he said. Then I dreamed I stood up once more and said: Teacher, My heart is falling asleep And it wants to wake up. It needs to be outside. Sit down, he said. Mary Oliver dream teacher fall Poetry is a river; many voices travel in it; poem after poem moves along in the exciting crests and falls of the river waves. None is timeless; each arrives in an historical context; almost everything, in the end, passes. But the desire to make a poem, and the world's willingness to receive it--indeed the world's need of it--these never pass. Mary Oliver voice fall moving A fact: one picks it up and reads it, and puts it down, and there is an end to it. But an idea! That one may pick up, and reflect upon, and oppose, and expand, and so pass a delightful afternoon altogether. Mary Oliver afternoon may ideas Things take the time they take. don't worry. How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine? Mary Oliver augustine worry
