Mary Oliver Reflections

 Mary Oliver Reflections

1.      Wild Geese

This opening poem blew me away and made me excited to read the rest of her poetry. In general, this poem spoke to me as one of comfort. She illustrates how the world moves on no matter your current circumstances. That is a common idea, but she takes it a step further. Most leave it in almost cold way- your problems don’t matter because the world keeps on moving. She writes that it moves on while constantly inviting you in to take refuge. “The world offers itself to your imagination, / calls like the wild geese, harsh and exciting- / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things”. Nature is made up of an infinite number of random chances that lead to you being here in this moment. If you listen, nature will always be there to remind you that you belong to a greater and more beautiful tapestry than us humans can fathom.

 

2.       Spring

I love how witnessing a tiny moment can lead to such impactful thoughts. This poem is mostly descriptive of the scene, specifically outlining the look of the birds, the actions of their courtship, and the setting where it takes place. This descriptive language paints a crystal-clear picture of what transpires in a normal, everyday event. However, within that normal event, there is so much beauty. “How lightly, all together, they accept / the great task, of carrying life/ forward!”. Such a succinct and eloquent way to describe something most humans eventually do. Humans join all of nature when we come together for that great task of carrying life forward.  That is a peaceful thought to me. We are different, yet the same, from the little birds in the air.

3.      The Kookaburras

This poem took a different, more haunting tone then the previous ones. Mary Oliver outlines the duality of man in the beginning. How we are capable of so much good and so much evil. Yet she pushes back on the idea that we are the only ones capable of such complex emotion. She kept the Kookaburras locked in their cage because that is where she wanted them. They were just birds and not capable of the wide breadth of emotion we humans feel. Yet, long after they are dead and gone, she realizes that she is not mightier than them and their death haunts her. She is reminded of the first line, being painfully aware that she has not blossomed in the flower she hopes to be. Perhaps setting those birds free to do their unextraordinary tasks would have changed things.

1.      

N    Night and the River

In this poem, Mary Oliver wrestles with the brutality of nature despite its beauty. She witnesses a bear successfully hunt a fish in the river, torn between admiration for the bear and pity for the fish. This is a hard reality that any nature writer is sure to wrestle. The more you come to love nature, you appreciate all of its intricate little beauties from a dew-soaked blade of grass to a purple mountain in sunrise. However, there is almost a complete lack of empathy in nature. There is a primal dance that has been going on for eons in which only the fittest survive. Mary starts her poem admiring the bear with its “great feet” leaping into the river and its muzzle shining in the moonlight. In a flash, she sees a magnificent fish and appreciates its beauty, before seeing it snatched up by the bear. She is immediately conflicted between lamenting the loss of the fish and admiring the bear’s skill. This conflict “follows her home” in another subversive personification by Mary Oliver. She tends to personify the most important thoughts in her poem, emphasizing their outsized impact on her life as if they are almost a human presence. She never leaves this tension, the beauty and the brutal, but resolves that is the sound of nature. There is one song all the way through and it encompasses that wide variety of emotion. I admire Mary for exploring this conflict, rather than simply focusing on the birds in flight or a morning sunrise. You ignore an integral part of nature if you just focus on the beauty and not the brutality, and vice versa.

 

2.      The Blackest of Inks

There is perhaps not a less relatable animal in nature than the solitary big cats. In The Blackest of Inks, Oliver reflects on the unique lifestyle of these cats compared to us humans. There is a human tendency to see anything in life or nature and try to relate it back to our own experience. By putting it into our terms, we establish an emotional connection to whatever it is we are witnessing. Seeing a mother bear get reunited with her cubs or a flock of birds flying together in a single direction are things that humans can tie to their own lives easily and thereby feel more attachment to. As such, these more “human” moments often get the lion’s share of footage, writings, and stories. In the poem, Oliver describes the solitary power of the panther as a “lean” and “quick” animal that “is only / a pair of eyes” at night. The rest of the poem describes the straightforward life of the panther as it simply exists. Oliver references a creator as “Sir” and ends by saying it gave the panther “a conscience / that never blinks”. This powerful creature roams on its own, at the top of the food chain, with no thought besides what is immediately in front of it. Comparing that to us humans, who often feel powerless as we are pulled in a million different directions, shows the stark contrast in lived experiences. Yet she lives it up to the reader to feel pity or jealousy for the panther. It might have a straightforward life, but is it missing out on the most important reasons to live in the process?

 

3.      The River Clarion

I, too, was blown away by this poem and decided to reflect on it as my last Mary Oliver writing. I have shared it with three or four people since we read it in class, and read it several times over myself. I love that Oliver dives headfirst into her questions and doubts about religion in this poem. She does not pretend to have the answers, but rather engages with the tension she feels before coming to a beautiful conclusion. I was raised in a Christian household, but have had my share of doubts over the years when it comes to that particular religion. I consider myself a spiritual person, but I often shy away from the doubts I feel. It was refreshing to see Oliver explore her own so eloquently. I loved the line “You don’t hear such voices in an hour or a day. / You don’t hear them at all if selfhood has stuffed your ears. / And it’s difficult to hear anything anyway, through / all of the traffic, and ambition”. I can often be frustrated with God that I have all these doubts and questions, yet I never truly sit down to listen for Him and reflect. I am going 24/7 with important events or unimportant distractions. Our modern world has so much noise, in a literal and figurative sense, it feels impossible to slow down and explore the important mysteries. I think that is one of the reasons I feel so grateful for nature when it comes. It is the only time when I feel like I can hear myself think. It is often uncomfortable, but in a way that feels right. As I move through life, bumping this way and that, Oliver’s picture of the river comforts me. It’s voice is always there, moving alongside me as it goes where it goes. I just need to slow down, remove the selfhood from my ears, and I will hear it.