Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?–from The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver, an American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, passed away at her home in Florida on January 17th, 2019, at the age of 83. WordPress.com bloggers have since shared many moving tributes and today, we wanted to share how three visual artists chose to honor the woman The Harvard Review called “a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making.”
Mary Oliver / Wild Geese by GC Meyers
Read some of Mary Oliver’s work at the Poetry Foundation.
Contemporary painter GC Meyers recounts how his piece, The Singular Heart, came to represent Oliver’s poem, Wild Geese.
A while back, a person interested in my work sent me the poem…Wild Geese…This person wanted to know if I would be interested in translating this poem into into one of my paintings for them.
After a short while, this person contacted me again and said they had been looking at my work and had found a painting that they felt captured the spirit of the poem. The painting is the one shown at the top, The Singular Heart.
I was thrilled by the choice. It had the feeling and message of the poem without being absolutely literal. It’s exactly how I wanted to portray it. And the message and title of the painting fell perfectly in line with Oliver’s poem. The Red Tree stands, singular and alone, with the realization that it has a unique place, as does every being, in the family of things.
Magical hummingbirds for Mary Oliver by Janet Weight Reed
In her poem, Long Afternoon on the Edge of Little Sister Pond, Oliver expresses delight at the potential of life after death as a hummingbird: I can’t wait to be the hummingbird, can you? Artist Janet Weight Reed uses bold and beautiful color to render a series of hummmingbirds in Mary’s honor.
After Mary Oliver by Jean Mackay
Looking for more poetry? Check out editor’s picks and features in our poetry category.
Artist Jean Mackay’s tribute to Mary Oliver meant venturing out to find beauty in the cold temperatures.
“My work is loving the world.”
So begins the poem Messenger, by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver, who died this week at the age of 83. Oliver delivered intimate observations of nature and deepened our understanding of life’s essence in few, choice words.
“Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums…”And though there were no hummingbirds or sunflowers to be found here yesterday, I nevertheless felt compelled to walk down the starkly cold winter road in honor of Mary Oliver and to satisfy my own need to find what beauty might remain along the roadside.
Standing still in 21-degree weather means mostly frozen fingers. Still, there is no substitute for being present; for being astonished by the cold; by wingbeats of geese overhead; by curled leaves of grasses waving in the wind.
Did Mary Oliver’s work resonate with you? Share a snippet of your favorite Oliver poem in the comments and why the verse speaks to you.
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How beautiful the art works and the poems. I too very much feel that my work is to love the world.
LikeLiked by 17 people
Interesting!
LikeLiked by 16 people
Beautiful. Thank you for this tribute to Mary Oliver.
LikeLiked by 13 people
Thank you for this! Isn’t it terrible that artists have to die for some of us (me) to learn about them. I am inspired by all the Oliver tributes and by her poetry, much of which is brand new to me!
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Beautiful tribute
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All good things come to an end…so sad.
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Thanks for this! Mary Oliver was incredible, it’s nice to see so many tributes to her.
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Thanks for sharing these tributes more widely Krista. I’m glad that more people are discovering Mary Oliver’s beautiful poetry as a result.
LikeLiked by 10 people
You’re welcome, Jean! Thank you for your lovely tribute.
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Also from “The Summer Day.”
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Why? Because I don’t know either.
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Rather an ironic coincidence that Mary Oliver died the same I was editing my post on Canada Geese and their migratory habits in late fall/mid-winter. That’s why I chose to change my title to “Wild Geese” after one of her most familiar poems. You can find this post on http://www.invitationtothegarden.WordPress.com
~ Jo
LikeLiked by 7 people
The next day, I posted Mary Oliver’s “White Eyes” in full and garnered a number of emailed responses.
LikeLiked by 6 people
I wrote this after she passed: https://danielwpolk.org/2019/01/19/thank-you-mary-oliver/
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Such beauty and inspiration!
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Yes it does resonate….it reminds us to belong….to ourselves and just be.
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“Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.” The final stanza of “I Worried” by Mary Oliver. Words I return to again and again when anxiety threatens to overwhelm. Balm for the soul.
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They live through their work…so It’s magic,isn’t…?!
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Lovely tribute. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 10 people
Thanks for the tribute.
LikeLiked by 8 people
Beautiful tribute!
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Am inspired
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Inspiration
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Beautiful❣
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“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness, it took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” 🧡🙏
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Loved it!
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Awesome poet… May her soul RIP
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So beautiful and magical…
LikeLiked by 9 people
The art work is very beautiful, there is nothing like a picture that goes exactly with a story .
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Inspiration
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So inspirational 🙏🏼
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I love the fact that artists payed tribute to her lifetime of work by rendering her poems as paintings! Like taking one form of art and translating it into another! What a beautiful concept.
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“someone I loved once gave me a box of darkness, it took me years to realise this too was a gift.” One of my all time favourites.
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Loved it
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Beautiful and inspiring
LikeLiked by 9 people
I really like this tribute.
LikeLiked by 10 people