Mary Oliver
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Winning Poet
At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver reads Mary Oliver
“One of the astonishing aspects of Oliver’s work is the consistency of tone over this long period. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets.” —Stephen Dobyns, New York Times Book Review
Mary Oliver has published fifteen volumes of poetry and five books of prose in the span of four decades, but she rarely performs her poetry in live readings. Now, with the arrival of At Blackwater Pond, Mary Oliver has given her audience what they’ve longed to hear: the poet’s voice reading her own work. In this beautifully produced compact disc, Mary Oliver has recorded forty of her favorite poems, nearly spanning the length of her career, from Dream Work through New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. The package is shrink-wrapped so that the elegant clothbound audiobook can takes its place on the poetry shelf. It also includes a fifteen-page booklet with an original essay, “Performance Note,” photos of the author at Blackwater Pond, and a full listing of the poems and their sources.
Photographs
 – Mary Oliver looks out at her beloved Blackwater Pond. From At Blackwater Pond (Audio, Beacon Press, 2006). |
Praise
“Mary Oliver ranks among the finest poets the English language has ever produced. Whether she’s describing a caterpillar’s transformation…or describing her own mystical connection to birdsong…she almost always can come up with striking, resonant images.…Oliver observes with great sensitivity, and puts her impressions in verse in a way that few can match…her poetry is rigorous, beautiful, well written, and offers genuine insights into the natural world.”
—Eli Lehrer, The Weekly Standard