Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays by Mary Oliver

I have the greatest of admiration for Mary Oliver's poetry. She has an almost "mystical" connection with nature that is truly inspiring. I feel the same connection that she does, I am just not as capable of expressing it as she is.

It seems that birds have been a very important part of her life, as they are in mine.

These are passionate poems and essays that will precipitate within you deep reflections on the marvelous mystery of life. Pick up this slim volume of pleasurable reading and you'll see why Mary won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Here's the beautiful kickoff poem in her book:



Wild Geese

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.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.