Mary Oliver
â€˜The gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable.â€™ (,Miami Herald,) This has never been truer than in ,Long Life,, a luminous collection of seventeen essays and ten poems.,With the grace and precision that are the hallmarks of her work, Oliver shows us how writing â€˜is a way of offering praise to the worldâ€™ and suggests we see her poems as â€˜little alleluiasâ€™. Whether describing a goosefish stranded at low tide, the feeling of being baptized by the mist from a whale's blowhole, or the â€˜connection between soul and landscapeâ€™, Oliver invites readers to find themselves and their experiences at the center of her world. In ,Long Life, she also speaks of poets and writers: Wordsworth's â€˜whirlwindâ€™ of â€˜beauty and strangenessâ€™; Hawthorne's â€˜sweet-temperedâ€™ side; and Emerson's belief that â€˜a man's inclination, once awakened to it, would be to turn all the heavy sails of his life to a moral purposeâ€™. ,With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has created a breathtaking volume sure to add to her reputation as â€˜one of our very best poetsâ€™ (,New York Times Book Review,).
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Long Life: Essays and Other Writings