Poems by Mary Oliver
Self-Portrait by Mary Oliver
September 10, 2026
“though I’m not twenty / and won’t be again but ah! seventy. And still / in love with life.” — Mary Oliver
Lead by Mary Oliver
March 1, 2026
“if you have not heard it, / you had better hurry to where / they still sing.” — Mary Oliver
Praying by Mary Oliver
October 28, 2025
“just / pay attention, then patch / a few words together and don’t try / to make them elaborate” — Mary Oliver
The Sun by Mary Oliver
September 10, 2025
“and into the clouds or the hills, / or the rumpled sea, / and is gone–” — Mary Oliver
The Roses by Mary Oliver
September 10, 2024
“day after day / you sit near them; day after day / the honey keeps on coming” — Mary Oliver
Thirst by Mary Oliver
July 1, 2024
"Love for the earth / and love for you are having such a long / conversation in my heart." — Mary Oliver
Invitation by Mary Oliver
December 24, 2023
"it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world." — Mary Oliver
Starlings in Winter by Mary Oliver
March 15, 2023
"I want / to think again of dangerous and noble things...I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, / as though I had wings." — Mary Oliver
Clam by Mary Oliver
December 25, 2022
"Each one is a small life, but sometimes long, if its / place in the universe is not found out." — Mary Oliver
Heavy by Mary Oliver
March 15, 2021
"I went closer, / and I did not die. / Surely God / had his hand in this," — Mary Oliver
Mysteries, Yes by Mary Oliver
March 17, 2018
"Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous / to be understood. / ... / Let me keep my distance, always, from those / who think they have the answers." — Mary Oliver
Sometimes by Mary Oliver
September 10, 2014
"Two or three times in my life I discovered love. / Each time it seemed to solve everything. / Each time it solved a great many things / but not everything."
Breakage by Mary Oliver
January 4, 2014
"First you figure out what each one means by itself," — Mary Oliver
The Arrowhead by Mary Oliver
September 4, 2013
“though I’m not twenty / and won’t be again but ah! seventy. And still / in love with life.” — Mary Oliver
Reckless Poem by Mary Oliver
February 13, 2013
"Today again I am hardly myself. / It happens over and over. / It is heaven-sent." — Mary Oliver
I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life by Mary Oliver
December 25, 2012
"Love, love, love, says Percy. / And hurry as fast as you can" — Mary Oliver
Poppies by Mary Oliver
November 3, 2012
“that happiness, // when it’s done right, / is a kind of holiness, / palpable and redemptive.” — Mary Oliver
I Want to Write Something So Simply by Mary Oliver
March 20, 2012
"that it was all the time / words that you yourself, / out of your heart / had been saying." — Mary Oliver
The Swan by Mary Oliver
December 25, 2011
“And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for? / And have you changed your life?” - Mary Oliver
The Poet with His Face in His Hands by Mary Oliver
August 23, 2011
"you can / drip with despair all afternoon and still, / on a green branch... the thrush... will sing / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything." — Mary Oliver
The Journey by Mary Oliver
August 12, 2011
"But little by little, / as you left their voices behind, / the stars began to burn / through the sheets of clouds, / and there was a new voice / which you slowly / recognized as your own..." — Mary Oliver
Marengo by Mary Oliver
December 29, 2010
"When I have to die, I would like to die / on a day of rain— / long rain, slow rain, the kind you think will never end." — Mary Oliver
Sunrise by Mary Oliver
December 25, 2010
"Call it // whatever you want, it is / happiness, it is another one / of the ways to enter / fire." — Mary Oliver
Peonies by Mary Oliver
December 18, 2010
"Do you love this world? / Do you cherish your humble and silky life?" — Mary Oliver
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
April 28, 2010
"You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert repenting." — Mary Oliver
Singapore by Mary Oliver
March 30, 2008
"A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem." — Mary Oliver
Morning Poem by Mary Oliver
November 12, 2005
"there is still / somewhere deep within you / a beast shouting that the earth / is exactly what it wanted ---" — Mary Oliver
When Death Comes by Mary Oliver
October 29, 2005
"I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world." — Mary Oliver
In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver
September 12, 2005
"the fires / and the black river of loss / whose other side / is salvation," — Mary Oliver