Mary Oliver
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Winning Poet
Long Life
$16.00 Paperback
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A dazzling new collection of essays, poems, and prose poems by the best-selling author of The Leaf and the Cloud and What Do We Know.
“Poets must read and study, but also they must learn to tilt and whisper, shout, or dance, each in his or her own way, or we might just as well copy the old books. But, no, that would never do, for always the new self swimming around in the old world feels itself uniquely verbal. And that is just the point: how the world, moist and bountiful, 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?’ This book is my comment.” —from the Foreword
“The gift of Oliver’s poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable” (Miami Herald). This has never been truer than in Long Life, a luminous collection of seventeen essays and ten poems. With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has created a breathtaking volume sure to add to her reputation as “one of our very best poets” (New York Times Book Review).
Praise
“One of the astonishing aspects of Oliver’s work is the consistency of tone over this long period [of her career]. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets . . . There is no complaint in Ms. Oliver’s poetry, no whining, but neither is there the sense that life is in any way easy . . . These poems sustain us rather than divert us. Although few poets have fewer human beings in their poems than Mary Oliver, it is ironic that few poets also go so far to help us forward.”
—Stephen Dobyns, New York Times Book Review