All things Mary Oliver

I feel like I am ages behind in recording life here. I will get caught up. Until then I am loving all things Mary Oliver. Here, I share some of my favorite quotes/short poems of hers. 

“Instructions for living a life. 
Pay attention. 
Be astonished. 
Tell about it.” 
― Mary Oliver

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” 
― Mary Oliver

“Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” 
― Mary Oliver

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” 
― Mary Oliver

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.” 

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am 
to be blessed.” 
― Mary Oliver

“I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” 
― Mary Oliver

“How I go to the woods

Ordinarily, I go to the woods alone, with not a single
friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore 
unsuitable.

I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds 
or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my way of 
praying, as you no doubt have yours. 

Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit
on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, 
until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost
unhearable sound of the roses singing.

If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love
you very much.” 
― Mary Oliver

“maybe death
isn't darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us--” 
― Mary Oliver

“He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.” 
― Mary Oliver

“And that is just the point... how the world, moist and beautiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response. That's the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. "Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?” 
― Mary Oliver

“I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us...” 
― Mary Oliver

“it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.” 
― Mary Oliver

“But I also say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it's done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive. ” 
― Mary Oliver