Mary Oliver

These poems by Mary oliver are probably my favorite piece from this class. Each one of them had a way of speaking to me in a different way. I love the first line of The Messenger: My work is loving the world. That immediately captured my attention. I could tell by this line that Oliver was most likely a Christian, and so I wanted to read on. "Am I no longer your, and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished." Isn't it ironic that the work Oliver talks about is being still? I would love to go to work today and just be still! I think he is talking about a different work. The work of our lives; the work that matters most. The work of appreciation.

Another piece that I liked from Oliver was the Six Recognitions of our Lord. As I read these six, I realized they were different ways that people find that place with God. Number one and three were closely related to my ways of recognizing God. Number one simply says, "I know a lot of fancy words. I tear them from my heart and my tongue. Then I pray." Something I think we all can be really good at is buttering up a good prayer to the Lord. "Be with us, Oh God....Be upon us, Oh Lord..." Sometimes I feel like we say things to Him without even really thinking about the words we are saying. This poem talks about thinking of our words before we say them, so they are meaningful. I am always challenged by this, but it is well worth it to think about what we are saying to God. I think we learn a lot about ourselves when we do this.

The Uses of Sorrow was another favorite of mine, although I liked them all. I think I liked it just because I can relate to it so well. I can think of two major incidences in my life where I was given a box of darkness. It took a very long time to see that the darkness was in fact a gift. To me, it was a gift because it made me who I am today, which is very different than who I used to be.