Devotions, Mary Oliver
Devotions, Mary Oliver
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Devotions
The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Author: Mary Oliver

Narrator: Kimberly Farr

Unabridged: 6 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 02/18/2025


Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A READ WITH JENNA PICK • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Mary Oliver, a definitive and enduring collection of her best work

“No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love. . . . 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

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver, from “The Summer Day”

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Arranged by Oliver herself shortly before her death in 2019, Devotions features Oliver’s work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of twenty-eight, through her last, Felicity, published in 2015.

This timeless volume 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.

About The Author

Born in a small town in Ohio, Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28. Over the course of her long career, she received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She led workshops and held residencies at various colleges and universities, including Bennington College, where she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching. She died in 2019.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Libby on June 20, 2019

I am aware of the criticisms of Mary Oliver’s work. She wrote about perhaps uncool things like God and the natural world and has been called “earnest” amongst other patronizing things. I believe that the critics are missing the core of her work which comes from an embodied sense of the ecstatic conn......more

Goodreads review by Annie on April 29, 2020

These poems feel like exhaling, when you didn’t realize you were holding your breath.......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on February 18, 2023

My friend, Pat, recommended Devotions by Mary Oliver as a comfort read back in November. She said this, along with Blue Iris, would be all the Mary Oliver I would ever need. I try to remind myself of that each time I finish a poem, and I want I buy all her other collections of which she has many. De......more

Goodreads review by ria on April 10, 2025

"listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?"......more


Quotes

“In Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (Penguin), one of our most beloved writers offers both the best of her work and a spiritual road map of sorts. Spanning more than 50 years and featuring more than 200 poems, the collection shows Oliver, in the early years, turning away from grief and finding in nature a 'vast, incredible gift.' Over time, as she carefully observes and records, Oliver extols the beauty and complexity around her and reminds us of the interconnectedness of living. She also asks important questions, such as 'have you ever dared to be happy/ . . . have you ever dared to pray,' and 'Tell me, what it is you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?' Those lines resonate as much today as when she first penned them decades ago. 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