I Am An Explorer - Discovering Mary Oliver

One of my "truths" of life is that... if a door opens to me, I will walk through to see what is there. I can always turn around and walk back out, but at least I will explore what is beyond the open door.

I never know when an open door will present itself.  Wednesday, while waiting for my turn at the physical therapist's office I picked up the April edition of Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine. As I thumbed through the pages I found myself staring at a picture of Maria Shriver with poet, Mary Oliver.

Over the years I have heard many people praise the poetry of Mary Oliver, especially my writing muse and mentor...Barbara Abercrombie.  I have never been drawn to poetry and have always felt somewhat "less" because of it.  My mind doesn't seem quiet enough nor disciplined enough to work through the lines of a poem.  I get distracted and want to move on to something more exhilarating.  Yet, I have known there must be value there that I was missing and have always filed "Read Mary Oliver's work" on my list of things to do "someday."  So, Wednesday, I walked through the door and read the article.  When I returned home, I googled some of Mary's poems on the internet.  Liking what I found, I went to the library to find a book of her work, slowly being drawn into this new experience.

What an interesting woman is Mary Oliver and what a gift she has for words.

I felt an immediate bond when I read that she was born in Maple Heights, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) not very far from my hometown of Kent.  A private person, she rarely gives interviews, letting her writing speak for itself.  She finds her inspiration in nature and often writes her poems in her head or in a notebook she always carries with her to jot down words or ideas as she walks the fields and paths near her home in Provincetown, MA.  Her poems are filled with very detailed and poignant observations of the world around her...the bird, the geese, the violet, the turtle.

I guess if she just stopped there, her poems would be still be lovely.  However she gives you more... using her observations as a springboard, near of the end of the poem she makes a statement or asks a question that is about life.  It is that aspect of her work that invades my spirit and stays with me.  Some of my favorite poems are "Wild Geese," "When Death Comes" and "Children, It's Spring" .  But the one poem that was referenced in the interview and which has stayed with me since I read it, is called "The Summer Day."

It begins with questions, flows into a detailed description of a grasshopper and ends with these words:

Tell me what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

from: Truro Bear and Other Adventures

My one wild and precious life....my one wild and precious life...my one wild and precious life!   I can read Mary Oliver's poems...they engage me...and they leave me thinking.

For me...I don't know else I will do with my one wild and precious life, but I do know that I will continue to walk through open doors! I invite you to experience Mary Oliver!