- Hardcover: 78 pages
- Publisher: Beacon Press (MA) (15 April 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0807068926
- ISBN-13: 978-0807068922
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 1.3 x 22.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,743,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Red bird came all winter / firing up the landscape / as nothing else could. So begins Mary Oliver's twelfth book of poetry, and the image of that fiery bird stays with the reader, appearing in unexpected forms and guises until, in a postscript, he explains himself: "For truly the body needs / a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work, / the soul has need of a body, / and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable / beauty of heaven / where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes, / and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart."
This collection of sixty-one new poems, the most ever in a single volume of Oliver's work, includes an entirely new direction in the poet's work: a cycle of eleven linked love poems-a dazzling achievement. As in all of Mary Oliver's work, the pages overflow with her keen observation of the natural world and her gratitude for its gifts, for the many people she has loved in her seventy years, as well as for her disobedient dog, Percy. But here, too, the poet's attention turns with ferocity to the degradation of the Earth and the denigration of the peoples of the world by those who love power. Red Bird is unquestionably Mary Oliver's most wide-ranging volume to date.
This collection of sixty-one new poems, the most ever in a single volume of Oliver's work, includes an entirely new direction in the poet's work: a cycle of eleven linked love poems-a dazzling achievement. As in all of Mary Oliver's work, the pages overflow with her keen observation of the natural world and her gratitude for its gifts, for the many people she has loved in her seventy years, as well as for her disobedient dog, Percy. But here, too, the poet's attention turns with ferocity to the degradation of the Earth and the denigration of the peoples of the world by those who love power. Red Bird is unquestionably Mary Oliver's most wide-ranging volume to date.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A beatiful collection of poems. Mary Oliver has always enguaged our inner life with the natural world but now seems to do so in a yet more direct and powerful way.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mary Oliver is my favourite poet so not surprisingly I love the edition of her poems. Very accessible poetry with an earthy connection to nature.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
16 reviews
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
The Extraordinary Voice of the Ordinary World
6 May 2008
Format:Hardcover
Are you familiar with the poetry of Mary Oliver?" I asked a student once in the hope of beginning a conversation on the poem "Wild Geese," a gem that contains the lines
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
en route to the statement "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,/the world offers itself to your imagination." This was the line I wanted in the hope of beginning a conversation on inspiration.
"I think so," the young woman squinted, the better to scan a distant memory. "I think that's the lady who writes about, like, her dog, Percy, I think and trees. That her?"
"You can start there," I said. "And you will get to Mary Oliver."
Because Mary Oliver's poetry is about this moment in this world in this light in this weather, alone or with the dog or on the way to something or nothing. It's about being here and loving it.
I believe there is nothing worth saying about Mary Oliver. Better to spend the time reading her work, or revisiting the magic of the landscape of your life.
Her new collection Red Bird is her 12th volume of published poems. Here she speaks to the beauty of the ordinary, the environment, and the people of the world who suffer at the hands of those who love power.
The world offers itself to your imagination. Accept the invitation and walk with this wonderful woman from Provincetown, Massachusetts.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
en route to the statement "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,/the world offers itself to your imagination." This was the line I wanted in the hope of beginning a conversation on inspiration.
"I think so," the young woman squinted, the better to scan a distant memory. "I think that's the lady who writes about, like, her dog, Percy, I think and trees. That her?"
"You can start there," I said. "And you will get to Mary Oliver."
Because Mary Oliver's poetry is about this moment in this world in this light in this weather, alone or with the dog or on the way to something or nothing. It's about being here and loving it.
I believe there is nothing worth saying about Mary Oliver. Better to spend the time reading her work, or revisiting the magic of the landscape of your life.
Her new collection Red Bird is her 12th volume of published poems. Here she speaks to the beauty of the ordinary, the environment, and the people of the world who suffer at the hands of those who love power.
The world offers itself to your imagination. Accept the invitation and walk with this wonderful woman from Provincetown, Massachusetts.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
"Red Bird" Fly's
3 April 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mary Oliver's simple, spiritual, nature infused poetry was never better. She teaches us all to watch all the details of Gods creations without preaching. We learn from the movement of her poetry, to recognize a cardinal when he lands, to know the names of all of natures wonders: pine needles and prairie dogs, cypress and elm,and we love the class as we learn. She faces life's curve balls with the wit and eye of a portrait painter who sees the tattered dress she wears as a badge not a burden. And she is aging so gracefully. I hope I do as well.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Present Moment Beauty
2 May 2008
Format:Hardcover
How beautifully we are invited in this most beautiful of Mary Oliver's books, to cease our restless strivings, to simply stand still, to listen, to watch, and to breathe in in gratitude for all that Life presents! Her words paint the invitation for us in tones that are sometimes as gentle as water-colours, sometimes as vibrant as a rich oil painting, revealing her awareness in the moment, telling us so much about her own love for life in all its forms. One of her great gifts is that ability to draw us to her as well as to the miracle of life around us, so that we have the feeling of walking the same path with her in companionable joy each moment. - It has been a great read, one that has brought much peace and a feeling of tranquillity and wellbeing to my spirit.
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