This is a book of uplifting poetry by one of the most prolific and best selling poets of America.

The forty-seven poems in it are on nature viewed through a poet's eyes, noticing what there is in its implied reality as well as rejoicing the miracle of life in creation.

The poems in this volume lack angst and despair a regular reader would expect from a poet, but then, what's wrong in celebrating life and the spirituality behind it?

Mary Oliver starts this book with a poem titled aptly as "Why I Wake Early," to let us know she is announcing that the poems inside the book will sing of a bright and positive day.

Then she writes about nature and little and large things in nature, minute things about them that only she can see such as beans, trout lilies, marsh hawk, doves, daisies, goldenrods, bears, black snakes, toads.

The book is in two parts. The second part begins with another morning poem, "This Morning I Watched the Deer."

The language is direct and meaningful with no plays on words, and the poems are easy to read and understand.

My favorite poem is, "Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End?" and I also liked "The Breakage."

Admittedly, this poet is a lover of nature and the earth, and thus, she brings out the best in the reader.

feeling happier and learning to see the positivity and spirituality in the creation.

Mary Oliver was born in 1935. She is an American poet who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, among other honorary degrees and awards.

Influenced by Whitman and Thoreau, she is compared to Emily Dickinson, as she has a tendency toward interior monologues and loves solitude.

She has about thirty poetry collections starting with No Voyage, and Other Poems in 1963. Her last poetry book was Swan in 2010.

Non fiction books and essays are: A Poetry Handbook Harcourt; Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse; Long Life: Essays and Other Writings Da Capo.

it appreciates living, the creation, and what it all may mean.

On the other hand, if you expect a poet lament, complain, and bring out his depression about his life and the goings on the world, then this book is not for you.

This book celebrates life and nature. That's all.

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Created May 16, 2011 at 12:20pm • Submit your own review...