The Legacy of Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver was a poet who spoke to your higher qualities, whose words inspired you to act more kindly, to seek in the petals of a flower the possibility of perfection here on earth.
I came to her poems through friends who shared her words shyly, a precious gift that they did not share with all. A sweet thought, a tiny glimpse of the world we barely stop to know.
If you read her poems daily, you would tred more lightly on your way. Imagine starting your day with these words:
“Hello, sun in my face. Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields… Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” (Mary Oliver)
And today, when news came that Mary Oliver had passed away, I was surprised by my tears. I felt a loss of hope, a loss of a hand to guide you past the gooey mess of human greed and guile that bombards us daily.
Whose voice would inspire us now, save us from the cacophony of the world?
In “A Summer Day,” poet Oliver challenged us to live life to its fullest knowing that death awaits us all.
“Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”
Oliver lived and loved. But mostly she wrote. We’d be lucky to keep alive her legacy.
