Poems Inspired by Mary Oliver
#MaryOliver
Poems inspired by the American poet Mary Jane Oliver. Here you'll find poetry using the style, themes or characters found in poems by Mary Oliver. Along with poems about Oliver herself, including praise, criticism and memorials.
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
18th Jan 2019 1:16am
18th Jan 2019 1:16am
When Death Comes ( After Mary Oliver )
When death comes,
let them say I mastered
the anatomy of words,
that my life was poetry.
Let them say I humbled
that bulwark of ego—
that bane of pride,
leaving a quiet legacy.
Not with the flying colors
of a Rainbow lorikeet
capturing its beholder's eye;
but, a female cardinal—
her lackluster appearance
ensuring the nest survives.
Let them, despite my human
mistakes and many faults,
say I at least loved poetry— ...
let them say I mastered
the anatomy of words,
that my life was poetry.
Let them say I humbled
that bulwark of ego—
that bane of pride,
leaving a quiet legacy.
Not with the flying colors
of a Rainbow lorikeet
capturing its beholder's eye;
but, a female cardinal—
her lackluster appearance
ensuring the nest survives.
Let them, despite my human
mistakes and many faults,
say I at least loved poetry— ...
#animals
#nature
#LifeAsAWriter
#WritingPoetry
#MaryOliver
1078 reads
Heaven_sent_Kathy
Poem Published
13th Jan 2019 11:32pm
13th Jan 2019 11:32pm
In Envy Of Nature
Me, my dozen small birds,
remembered Earth’s rose skirts
all around a lichens stone bed,
Before arranging seeds between
tree branches, but by dark,
doom took their darkness.
Heard the insects’ kingdoms,
of something among nothing
as stars slept;
So tenderly, white moths
do better in
luminous morning times,
Who light fire pockets floated,
breathing full on river water.
She thought if they fell, and
vanished back into night.
At least I never had...
remembered Earth’s rose skirts
all around a lichens stone bed,
Before arranging seeds between
tree branches, but by dark,
doom took their darkness.
Heard the insects’ kingdoms,
of something among nothing
as stars slept;
So tenderly, white moths
do better in
luminous morning times,
Who light fire pockets floated,
breathing full on river water.
She thought if they fell, and
vanished back into night.
At least I never had...
#jealousy
#birds
#night
#nature
#MaryOliver
595 reads
13 Comments
Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
jade tiger
Poem Published
13th Jan 2019 3:38am
13th Jan 2019 3:38am
Essence
it likes to imagine
appendages
to yawn and stretch
quiet testing,
then owns the sunrise
to meld with and warm
from its answer
alone, it yearns
then comes into
our sphere,
idillic form to be free in
( shapeless, eternal
Is nothing new
in a universe )
it fancies form with its
rudiments and
shortcomings
providing curves
it wants a connection, ...
appendages
to yawn and stretch
quiet testing,
then owns the sunrise
to meld with and warm
from its answer
alone, it yearns
then comes into
our sphere,
idillic form to be free in
( shapeless, eternal
Is nothing new
in a universe )
it fancies form with its
rudiments and
shortcomings
providing curves
it wants a connection, ...
#nature
#SelfDiscovery
#universe
#spiritual
#MaryOliver
858 reads
6 Comments
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
12th Jan 2019 9:09pm
12th Jan 2019 9:09pm
The Journey ( Resumed – After Mary Oliver )
It never began but resumed
on some lackadaisical day
when you least expected joy
amid the everyday mundane—
or, maybe it was an extraordinary
moment orchestrated by love
activating clarity of intuition
subcutaneously dormant within you;
a minute idea-like mammal
etching its way blindly
through hallowed cavities
of your solar plexus—
...
on some lackadaisical day
when you least expected joy
amid the everyday mundane—
or, maybe it was an extraordinary
moment orchestrated by love
activating clarity of intuition
subcutaneously dormant within you;
a minute idea-like mammal
etching its way blindly
through hallowed cavities
of your solar plexus—
...
#universe
#spiritual
#TruthOfLife
#philosophical
#MaryOliver
865 reads
4 Comments
Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
jade tiger
Poem Published
11th Jan 2019 3:13pm
11th Jan 2019 3:13pm
Nature, She Thought I Was Sleeping
Birds do.
Least they never took back seeds.
She skirts branches,
tenderly arranging
(work the earth with full pockets)
around me as I slept.
Thoughts fell between stars
before morning light rose.
Tree kingdoms (who heard),
thought at times, by
grappling darkness into
something breathing fire,
Doom had vanished.
But nothing among all their
Small, dark insects
remembered her
dozen perfect white...
Least they never took back seeds.
She skirts branches,
tenderly arranging
(work the earth with full pockets)
around me as I slept.
Thoughts fell between stars
before morning light rose.
Tree kingdoms (who heard),
thought at times, by
grappling darkness into
something breathing fire,
Doom had vanished.
But nothing among all their
Small, dark insects
remembered her
dozen perfect white...
#forest
#river
#night
#nature
#MaryOliver
873 reads
34 Comments
Heaven_sent_Kathy
Poem Published
9th Jan 2019 10:29pm
9th Jan 2019 10:29pm
Omnipotent Journey
Is it age that has me turn aside,
to think twice because the
turmoil in my life is nothing new.
This time around it’s
different news or seems to be,
though bitter onslaught’ chill
and words are all the same.
Before I’m overwhelmed
this time, I know what I must do,
and I won’t be alone.
From those who try to hold me back
with lists they need for me to fill.
From shouts that try to blame their
wants and woes so hard it seems
the earth will free-fall from its spin
— I soon...
to think twice because the
turmoil in my life is nothing new.
This time around it’s
different news or seems to be,
though bitter onslaught’ chill
and words are all the same.
Before I’m overwhelmed
this time, I know what I must do,
and I won’t be alone.
From those who try to hold me back
with lists they need for me to fill.
From shouts that try to blame their
wants and woes so hard it seems
the earth will free-fall from its spin
— I soon...
#forest
#winter
#nature
#SelfDiscovery
#MaryOliver
632 reads
7 Comments
ImperfectedStone
The Gardener
The Gardener
Poem Published
8th Jan 2019 2:03pm
8th Jan 2019 2:03pm
The Swan (Oliver: Bone)
For my small, incredible Great-Nanny, who loved Swans, who has been gone for seven years too long.
Inspired by Mary Oliver's poem by the same name.
Inwardly descending, shifting across the creek
she comes
with the grace of a purest babe
and careful, as mother carrying it
'her ship, filled
with white flowers–'
dancing upon the early-grey
of ghosts, in their holy chariots.
I miss my Grandmother's company–
sketching waves
within perfectly penned lines and
of...
Inspired by Mary Oliver's poem by the same name.
Inwardly descending, shifting across the creek
she comes
with the grace of a purest babe
and careful, as mother carrying it
'her ship, filled
with white flowers–'
dancing upon the early-grey
of ghosts, in their holy chariots.
I miss my Grandmother's company–
sketching waves
within perfectly penned lines and
of...
#death
#birds
#water #MaryOliver
#water #MaryOliver
658 reads
7 Comments
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
6th Jan 2019 6:07pm
6th Jan 2019 6:07pm
Song of the Builders ( After Mary Oliver )
We are humankind, all of us
living various levels of experience—
growing consciousness as bones.
Some are fractured, broken
scarred by choice or accident—
others, solidly intact.
We do not master response
as much as approach — although
it is not the latter that generates war
but the former alone.
If I say, Strike my cheek
do it, that I may judge
how much I have built
upon the foundation of Love
by turning the other too—
or, how far I still need to go. ...
living various levels of experience—
growing consciousness as bones.
Some are fractured, broken
scarred by choice or accident—
others, solidly intact.
We do not master response
as much as approach — although
it is not the latter that generates war
but the former alone.
If I say, Strike my cheek
do it, that I may judge
how much I have built
upon the foundation of Love
by turning the other too—
or, how far I still need to go. ...
#nature
#peace
#spiritual
#humankind
#MaryOliver
1077 reads
22 Comments
Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
jade tiger
Poem Published
31st Dec 2018 4:49pm
31st Dec 2018 4:49pm
Sleeping In The Forest
*Yes.*
*It was*
*an embrace*
*I felt when I ventured*
*into the embryo.*
*
*Of*
*when*
*I crouched*
*and peered, and was*
*the memory of*
*
*A*
*faintly*
*familiar feel*
*of freedom, that I had*
*merely saved*
*
*And*
*let slip,*
*till I was with*
*the earth while she had*
*softly whispered*
*
*The*
*first lesson*
*she ever taught me,*
*of the worlds in raindrops* ...
#earth
#forest
#nature
#gratitude
#MaryOliver
848 reads
21 Comments
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
31st Dec 2018 3:28pm
31st Dec 2018 3:28pm
Mindful ( After Mary Oliver )
God days, I call them—
creation aligned
with mindful being
despite contrast;
such as the truth
of this simple moment:
no accolade, award
or holiday exists as reason
to appreciate its breath;
only Life itself:
winter grass
a frozen lake—
this skeletal leaf
~
#MaryOliver
creation aligned
with mindful being
despite contrast;
such as the truth
of this simple moment:
no accolade, award
or holiday exists as reason
to appreciate its breath;
only Life itself:
winter grass
a frozen lake—
this skeletal leaf
~
#MaryOliver
#nature
#LifeAsAWriter
#WritingPoetry
#gratitude
#MaryOliver
783 reads
2 Comments
yelluw_always
Poem Published
31st Dec 2018 1:05am
31st Dec 2018 1:05am
The Collector
1.
Unusual, in the distance, stillness
beneath a hanging
wispy algae as it waves
a flag. The pelican
whittled down
to its base form. Stark, stranded, smooth-
an orange beak
like a bird of paradise and I sought heaven
in your duplicity, in your triplicity,
in your multitudes, a million
lights emerge
as static on the sea, I did not see it.
I believe wishes come
2.
from the wing bone. Funny,
life is not a stranger, but death is....
Unusual, in the distance, stillness
beneath a hanging
wispy algae as it waves
a flag. The pelican
whittled down
to its base form. Stark, stranded, smooth-
an orange beak
like a bird of paradise and I sought heaven
in your duplicity, in your triplicity,
in your multitudes, a million
lights emerge
as static on the sea, I did not see it.
I believe wishes come
2.
from the wing bone. Funny,
life is not a stranger, but death is....
#birds
#morality
#dreams
#sea
#MaryOliver
29 reads
28 Comments
Ahavati
Tams
Tams
Poem Published
28th Dec 2018 4:10pm
28th Dec 2018 4:10pm
Wild Geese ( After Mary Oliver )
There are no instructions to glean wisdom;
no table of contents directing the living
to their appropriate chapter in life’s manual.
There is only an instinct for survival,
one deeper than holding your breath;
and no one taught you to do that.
In the intimate darkness of womb
you inhaled amniotic fluid
because it sustained your growth,
but no one taught you to do that.
No one taught you to hold your breath
in the birth canal or your first bath;
you just knew you were supposed to.
So why do...
no table of contents directing the living
to their appropriate chapter in life’s manual.
There is only an instinct for survival,
one deeper than holding your breath;
and no one taught you to do that.
In the intimate darkness of womb
you inhaled amniotic fluid
because it sustained your growth,
but no one taught you to do that.
No one taught you to hold your breath
in the birth canal or your first bath;
you just knew you were supposed to.
So why do...
#universe
#LifeAsAWriter
#evolution
#WritingPoetry
#MaryOliver
948 reads
11 Comments
DU Poetry : Poems Inspired by Mary Oliver
#MaryOliver is curated by Ahavati (Tams).
