Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was born and raised in Maple Hills Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. She would retreat from a difficult home to the nearby woods, where she would build huts of sticks and grass and write poems. Poet Maxine Kumin said of Mary; she was an “indefatigable guide to the natural world." Lucky us.

How Would You Live Then?

What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks

     flew in circles around your head? What if

the mockingbird came into the house with you and

     became your advisor? What if

the bees filled your walls with honey and all

     you needed to do was ask them and they would fill

the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just

     past your bedroom window so you could listen

to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if

     the stars began to shout their names, or to run

this way and that way above the clouds? What if

     you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves

began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang

     from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw

that the silver of water was brighter than the silver

     of money? What if you finally saw

that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day

     and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were

more precious, more meaningful than gold?

— Mary Oliver