Poetic Inspiration: Mary Oliver's poetry, craft, and journal

Poetic Inspiration: Mary Oliver's poetry, craft, and journal

One of American's most beloved poets, Mary Oliver has inspired a generation of readers to look with awe on the world around them. This bundle of books includes Oliver's collected poems, essays on writing, and a journal where Oliver's words can spark your own. 

Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades of her esteemed literary career.

"No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem." --The Washington Post 

"It's as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration." --Chicago Tribune

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years.

Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry

"Mary Oliver would probably never admit to anything so grandiose as an effort to connect the conscious mind and the heart (that's what she says poetry can do), but that is exactly what she accomplishes in this stunning little handbook."--Los Angeles Times

From the beloved and acclaimed poet, an ultimate guide to writing and understanding poetry.

With passion and wit, Mary Oliver skillfully imparts expertise from her long, celebrated career as a disguised poet. She walks readers through exactly how a poem is built, from meter and rhyme, to form and diction, to sound and sense, drawing on poems by Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others. This handbook is an invaluable glimpse into Oliver's prolific mind--a must-have for all poetry-lovers.

This Wild and Precious Life: A Journal

This Wild and Precious Life is a stunning journal featuring inspiring quotes from beloved poet Mary Oliver and delightful illustrations that illuminate her themes of wonder and nature.

"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Simple, direct, and profoundly feeling, Mary Oliver touched countless readers with her tender, accessible verse, expressing her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Her poems deftly weave close observations of nature with an evergreen state of wonder, and her essays about the craft of writing are remarkable for their intelligent yet comprehensive advice.

Oliver is a perennial touchstone for writers and nature lovers. Here for the first time is a journal that invites you to actively engage with her poetry. Flip from page to page to find a comforting, inspiring, or challenging quote from one of her poems, with an occasional poem reprinted in its entirety. The questions that weave through her poems form natural journaling prompts--from "The Gardener," for example: Have I lived enough? Have I loved enough? Or from "Gratitude" What did you notice? What was most wonderful? A list of citations for the quotes included in the back offers journalers the ability to delve deeper into Oliver's work.

With delightful nature drawings appearing alongside Oliver's celebrated verse, This Wild and Precious Life gives readers an opportunity, for the first time, to engage personally in a written conversation with the beloved poet, page by page.