Blue Horses

by Mary Oliver

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 83
Rating:

Synopsis:

Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us. In this stunning collection, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life's work. Herons, sparrows, owls and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry and impermanence. Whether considering a bird's nest, the seeming patience of oak trees or the paintings of Franz Marc, Mary Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments. Blue Horses asks what it truly means to belong to this world and to live in it attuned to all its changes. 'To be human,' she shows us, 'is to sing your own song'.

Mary Oliver’s work is definitely a proof that poetry doesn’t have to be impenetrable — there’s something very open and airy about her work, something that invites you in, and she seemed to take such joy in the world and to have had a curiosity about everything.

Here’s the end of one poem that stuck with me:

I’ll just leave you with this.
I don’t care how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin. It’s
enough to know that for some people
they exist, and that they dance.

Definitely going to read more of her collections; kind of wish I’d picked up one or two more at the same time during my trip to Gay’s the Word!

Rating: 5/5 (“loved it”)