Poetry Quote by Mary Oliver — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“But first and foremost, I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple—or a green field—a place to enter, and in which to feel. Only in a secondary way is it an intellectual thing—an artifact, a moment of seemly and robust wordiness—wonderful as that part of it is. I learned that the poem was made not just to exist, but to speak—to be company.”

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”

“Another morning and I wake with thirst”

“Dogfish”

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”

“The Summer Day”

“Oh Susie, I often think that I will try to tell you how very dear you are, and how I'm watching for you, but the words won't come, though the tears will, and I sit down disappointed. Yet, darling, you know it all-- then why do I seek to tell you? I do not know. In thinking of those I love, my reason is all gone from me, and I do fear sometimes that I must make a hospital for the hopelessly insane, and chain myself up there so I won't injure you.”

“I'll Die For Your Sins If You Live For mine.”

“in the afterglow”

“229. I am writing all this down in blue ink, so as to remember that all words, not just some, are written in water.”

“সবাই মানুষ থাকবে না।”

“You do not have to be good.”