Wild Geese (Bloodaxe World Poets) [Paperback]

Mary Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2004 | Series: Bloodaxe World Poets

An anthology, this book's title poem, "Wild Geese", opened "Staying Alive".

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mary Oliver is a hugly popular poet in the United States. She has won the Pulitzer prize and the National Book Award. Her many collections have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the US but Wild Geese is her first collection in Britain for over 40years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852246286
• ISBN-13: 978-1852246280
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A private person by nature, Mary Oliver has given very few interviews over the years. Instead, she prefers to let her work speak for itself. And speak it has, for the past five decades, to countless readers. The New York Times recently acknowledged Mary Oliver as "far and away, this country's best-selling poet." Born in a small town in Ohio, Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28; No Voyage and Other Poems, originally printed in the UK by Dent Press, was reissued in the United States in 1965 by Houghton Mifflin. Oliver has since published many works of poetry and prose. As a young woman, Oliver studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College, but took no degree. She lived for several years at the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay in upper New York state, companion to the poet's sister Norma Millay. It was there, in the late '50s, that she met photographer Molly Malone Cook. For more than forty years, Cook and Oliver made their home together, largely in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they lived until Cook's death in 2005. Over the course of her long and illustrious career, Oliver has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence. Oliver's essays have appeared in Best American Essays 1996, 1998, 2001; the Anchor Essay Annual 1998, as well as Orion, Onearth and other periodicals. Oliver was editor of Best American Essays 2009. Oliver's books on the craft of poetry, A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, are used widely in writing programs. She is an acclaimed reader and has read in practically every state as well as other countries. She has led workshops at various colleges and universities, and held residencies at Case Western Reserve University, Bucknell University, University of Cincinnati, and Sweet Briar College. From 1995, for five years, she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from The Art Institute of Boston (1998), Dartmouth College (2007) and Tufts University (2008). Oliver currently lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the inspiration for much of her work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great poetry book, July 11, 2008

By 

Carol D. Lewis "Appreciative Aficionada" (Cary, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wild Geese (Bloodaxe World Poets) (Paperback)

This is a classic and wonderful book of poetry. Mary Oliver is one of, if not the best, poets alive today. This book is a wonderful sampling of her naturalistic based poetry. The title poem Wild Geese is wonderful and shows her unique style:

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You have only to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing poetry, December 30, 2010

By 

S. Stead "Sooz" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wild Geese (Bloodaxe World Poets) (Paperback)

This woman is a stunning poet. She brings the world alive to you. She doesn't just write sweet poems about nature - she links her extraordinary observation with a spiritual element - looking at us, our lives, meaning, through a dead snake, the movement of a swan through water....
google her on-line and read a poem or two - you'll want to buy the book.