Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is my favorite poet and this collection of poems from her different works is a delight that I will revisit again and again.

I would like to share one of the dog-eared poems in my copy (that I dog-eared poems in this book at all says something, because I am one of those peculiar sorts who like to keep books in pristine condition). It is titled, “Invitation.”

“Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude -
believe us, they say, it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in this broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.”

Mary Oliver covers it all in her poems—life and death, pain and joy, loss and gain, sacrifice and gift, simplicity and complexity, the human amid nature...everything. She's somehow brilliant without ever seeming to put out any effort toward becoming so. Her poems are some of the wisest poems I've ever read.