Mary Oliver
American poet whose work — rooted in long contemplative walks through the woods and dunes of Provincetown, Massachusetts — became one of the most beloved bodies of contemplative literature of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in 1935 in Maple Heights, Ohio, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive in 1984 and the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems in 1992. Her two questions — 'What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?' and 'Are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?' — have become touchstones of contemporary spiritual life. Her work blends close-watching of the natural world with a deep contemplative attention that has been compared to Rilke, Whitman, and the great wisdom traditions she rarely named.
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Quotes by Mary Oliver
109 quotes“What I want is to be loved. What I want more is to give love.”
“Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention.”
“Are you working on this? Are you bringing yourself to this? Then you are doing the work of your life.”
“What is the last thing? Is it the smile? Is it the breath? Is it the kiss? It is whatever you say it is.”
“I rose, finally, sang myself awake, and have not stopped singing.”
“For me to be a poet, I had to be still. I had to listen.”
“My words are wings. The reader provides the flight.”
“In the long run, the world saves itself by becoming our story.”
“To know the world, walk in it. To love the world, watch it.”
“Don't write what's pretty. Write what's true.”
“Whatever the question, the answer is the field.”
“I am exhausted with looking and not seeing.”
“Beauty is the greater virtue. Without it, all the others are inadequate.”
“Without love, all that is left is the body's mechanics.”
“In every life, what is the work? It is to learn to love.”
“And so, do not despair. Even now, the swans are flying.”
“What is harder than loving? Holding on. What is harder than holding on? Letting go.”
“Do not be ashamed of your tears. They are the body's way of saying yes.”
“Look — the world is open. Walk into it.”
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