Synopses & Reviews
"Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing," wrote Stanley Kunitz many years ago; and recently, Rita Dove described her last volume, The Leaf and the Cloud, as "a brilliant meditation." For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's dazzling poetry and luminous vision, as well as for those who may be coming to her work for the first time, What Do We Know will be a revelation. These forty poems of observing, of searching, of pausing, of astonishment, of giving thanks embrace in every sense the natural world, its unrepeatable moments and its ceaseless cycles. Mary Oliver evokes unforgettable images from one hundred white-sided dolphins on a summer day to bees that have memorized every stalk and leaf in a field even as she reminds us, after Emerson, that "the invisible and imponderable is the sole fact."
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"Oliver again turns her luminous eye to the natural world, invoking its mysteries, its darkness and beauty. These are poems of wonder and praise for the sea, the seasons, the mockingbird, the clam and for the human spirit that watches and listens." Diana Sabot, The Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT
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"Oliver's poems are thoroughly convincing as genuine, moving, and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring." The New York Times
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"What good company Mary Oliver is!" Los Angeles Times
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"The gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable." Miami Herald
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"One would think that poems about self, nature, death, and ecstasy had run their course in English. Think again." Chicago Tribune
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"Who wouldn't be part of Mary Oliver's world?" Appalachian Review
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"A great poet....She is amazed but not blinded." The Boston Globe
Synopsis
Forty poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver "Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing," wrote Stanley Kunitz. For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's dazzling poetry and luminous vision, as well as for those who may be coming to her work for the first time, What Do We Know will be a revelation. These forty poems-of observing, of searching, of pausing, of astonishment, of giving thanks embrace in every sense the natural world, its unrepeatable moments and its ceaseless cycles. Mary Oliver evokes unforgettable images from one hundred white-sided dolphins on a summer day to bees that have memorized every stalk and leaf in a field even as she reminds us, after Emerson, that "the invisible and imponderable is the sole fact."
Synopsis
Now in paperback-the best-selling collection of poems by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Leaf and the Cloud.
About the Author
Mary Oliver is the author of more than ten volumes of poetry and prose, including American Primitive, New and Selected Poems, House of Light, A Poetry Handbook, West Wind, Rules for the Dance, Winter Hours, The Leaf and the Cloud, which was both a Boston Globe and a Book Sense best seller. Her many accolades include the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Lannan Literary Award; in 1999 she received the New England Book Award for Literary Excellence from the New England Booksellers Association. Mary Oliver lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts.