What Do We KnowWhat Do We Know
Poems and Prose Poems
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Book, 2002
Current format, Book, 2002, First De Capo edition, Available .Book, 2002
Current format, Book, 2002, First De Capo edition, Available . Offered in 0 more formatsA new collection of forty poems by the best-selling author of The Leaf and the Cloud presents her observations of the natural world, highlighting such subjects as a pod of white-sided dolphins and bees in a field. 25,000 first printing.
A new collection of poems by the best-selling author of The Leaf and the Cloud
For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's dazzling poetry and luminous vision, as well as for those who may only now be discovering her work, What Do We Know will be a revelation and, in the words of Stanley Kunitz, "a blessing." These forty poems—of observing, of searching, of pausing, of astonishment, of giving thanks—embrace in every sense the natural world, its unrepeatable moments and its ceaseless cycles. Mary Oliver evokes unforgettable images—from one hundred white-sided dolphins on a summer day to bees that have memorized every stalk and leaf in a field—even as she reminds us, after Emerson, that "the invisible and imponderable is the sole fact."What was most wonderful?The sea, and its wide shoulders;the sea and its triangles;the sea lying back on its long athlete's spine.What did you think was happening?The green breast of the hummingbird;the eye of the pond;the wet face of the lily;the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak;the red tulip of the fox's mouth;the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve of the first snow—so the gods shake us from our sleep.—from "Gratitude"
A new collection of poems by the best-selling author of The Leaf and the Cloud
For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's dazzling poetry and luminous vision, as well as for those who may only now be discovering her work, What Do We Know will be a revelation and, in the words of Stanley Kunitz, "a blessing." These forty poems—of observing, of searching, of pausing, of astonishment, of giving thanks—embrace in every sense the natural world, its unrepeatable moments and its ceaseless cycles. Mary Oliver evokes unforgettable images—from one hundred white-sided dolphins on a summer day to bees that have memorized every stalk and leaf in a field—even as she reminds us, after Emerson, that "the invisible and imponderable is the sole fact."What was most wonderful?The sea, and its wide shoulders;the sea and its triangles;the sea lying back on its long athlete's spine.What did you think was happening?The green breast of the hummingbird;the eye of the pond;the wet face of the lily;the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak;the red tulip of the fox's mouth;the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve of the first snow—so the gods shake us from our sleep.—from "Gratitude"
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- Cambridge, Mass. : De Capo Press, 2002.
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