Blue Horses by Mary Oliver

Blue Horses Reviews

• 
  Ariel

  I've heard lots about Mary Oliver and, not knowing (or particularly caring??), where to start with her books, I made my decision to start with "Blue Horses" purely because I liked the look of it.
  
  The main thing that stands out to me about Oliver's writing is her confidence and clarity. She knows what she wants to say and she knows that she can say it. There's no confusion or feeling of "did I fully understand that?", which I sometimes get with poetry.
  
  I really liked this collection! There was a row of like 9 poems where I kept dog earring them because it was just gold after gold. I'm really glad that a few months ago I picked up her essay collection, "Upsteam", and am hoping to dive into that soon!
• 
  Lucy Dacus

  I! Don’t! Want! To! Be! Demure! Or! Respectable!
• 
  Bernadette

  "It must be a great disappointment
  to God if we are not dazzled at least ten
  times a day."
  
  I am honored to share this earth with Mary Oliver.
• 
  Steven Godin

  
  LITTLE CRAZY LOVE SONG
  
  I don't want eventual,
  I want soon.
  It's 5 a.m. It's noon.
  It's dusk falling to dark.
  I listen to music.
  I eat up a few wild poems
  while time creeps along
  as though it's got all day.
  This is what I have.
  The dull hangover of waiting,
  the blush of my heart on the damp grass,
  the flower-faced moon.
  A gull broods on the shore
  where a moment ago there were two.
  Softly my right hand fondles my left hand
  as though it were you.
  
  
• 
  Leslie

  from Blue Horses:
  
  "The Country Of The Trees"
  
  There is no king in their country
  and there is no queen
  and there are no princes vying for power,
  inventing corruption.
  Just as with us many children are born
  and some will live and some will die and the country
  will continue.
  
  The weather will always be important.
  
  And there will always be room for the weak, the violets
  and the bloodroot.
  When it is cold they will be given blankets of leaves.
  When it is hot they will be given shade.
  And not out of guilt, neither for a year-end deduction
  but maybe for the cheer of their colors, their
  small flower faces.
  
  They are not like us.
  
  Some will perish to become houses or barns,
  fences and bridges.
  Others will endure past the counting of years.
  And none will ever speak a single word of complaint,
  as though language, after all,
  did not work well enough, was only an early stage.
  Neither do they ever have any questions to the gods---
  which one is the real one, and what is the plan.
  As though they have been told everything already,
  and are content.
  
  Mary Oliver had been writing poetry more than 40 years before I ever read “The Journey” and “Wild Geese,” and she became one of my favorite poets. Her work drops me down into a meditative realm, and I feel the homey and raw aspects of this natural world that are feeding my body and senses at all times.
  
  The 39 poems in Blue Horses are much like prayers, I think. They don’t strive to answer questions, but turn things over like seasons in the hand. Some favorites (this week) are “Blueberries,” “Such Silence,” “Watering the Stones,” “Drifting,” “On Not Watering The Lawn,” “Do Stones Feel?,” “What Gorgeous Thing,” and “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac.”
  
  Somehow Mary Oliver’s poetry makes me feel that her attentiveness to this world is because she was a stone, or a wren, or a cloud before she came here; and when she leaves she will become a hummingbird, or a violet, or a bluebird next time around.
• 
  cameron

  i’ve reread this many times and everytime i find something new.
  ——
  i don’t usually give poetry collections star ratings, but this is my new favorite collection and i can’t stress enough how much i love it!!!! favorites: angels, good morning, the fourth sign of the zodiac.
• 
  Julie

  Saying this wasn't my favorite of Mary Oliver's collections is like saying I preferred Tuesday's sunset to Thursday's. It's all relative. Her poetry is always revelatory and beautiful. But I will return to others for inspiration and peace and catharsis.
• 
  lizzie

  “Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.”
• 
  tee

  after all of this i just want to take a walk on the softest grass and think about how “maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of god that is inside each of us.”
• 
  Jenny (Reading Envy)

  "I would like people to remember of me, how
  inexhaustible was her mindfulness."
  -from A Little Ado About This and That
  
  I don't think I realized that Mary Oliver had come out with another volume of poetry, but she's one of my favorites, and when I saw it at the public library I snagged it right away.
  
  Mary Oliver, born in 1935, never ceases to amaze me. Many of her poems reflect on nature, but she is always having new experiences and learning more about herself. Some of these poems give an insight to a new home, and a new love, even now so late in life. I would recommend her outlook to anyone needing a bit of a boost, anyone who feels lonely, or anyone who has had to forge their own path.
  
  "..In the song sparrow's nest the nestlings,
  those who would sing eventually, must listen
  carefully to the father bird as he sings
  and make their own song in imitation of his.
  I don't know if any other bird does this (in
  nature's way has to do this). But I know a
  child doesn't have to. Doesn't have to.
  Doesn't have to. And I didn't."
  -from To Be Human is to Sing Your Own Song
  
  
• 
  R K

  1.5
  
  Abysmal she cries
  as the last pages unfold
  for 79 pages of writing,
  yet not one struck bold
  
  The beginning was weak and left much
  for desire it comes in the second half
  but by then my fantasies start to unravel
  
  Most often it felt like the thoughts in ones head
  as they held no rhythm nor rhyme despite all they said.
  A soft brush that tries to uncover
  but ends up more smudgier
  
  Such were the poems by a Miss Mary Oliver
  A hazy afternoon summer
  soon merged with another
  and all together felt
  forgotten
• 
  richa

  
  Stay young, always, in the theater of your
  mind.
  

  
  
  
  There's something comforting about Mary Oliver that makes me believe that she can cure all my sadness and replace it with the calmness of her words. How lovely, sweet and divine! I wish I was a character out of her books, sigh.
• 
  Ebony (EKG)

  Mary Oliver’s poetry is my safe space
• 
  David

  Mary Oliver had a gift for quietly cutting to the heart of the matter. Her ability to speak of deep, universal truths in simple language can leave one breathless. This particular collection is not her strongest but the three poems that I will return to are:
  
  I Woke
  The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac
  The Country of the Trees
  
  3.5 stars overall
• 
  Cass

  “What kind of life is it always to plan and do, to promise and finish, to wish for the near and safe?”
• 
  Jerrie

  As is typical of Mary Oliver, this collection included many poems about the natural world and being alone in nature. Wonderful, evocative language throughout makes this a pick.
• 
  Teresa

  From the poem A Little Ado About This And That included in this volume:
  
  "I would like people to remember of me, how inexhaustible was her mindfulness."
  
  There is no doubt that this is how Oliver will be remembered. Her outlook in this slim, attractive book remains positive, never cloying, and is tinged with welcome humor and even sadness as she approaches death -- though as fitting with her persona, she turns that into affirmation as well.
  
  Any previous exposure I've had to Oliver's poems has been via the internet and I've loved them all, though the first one I came across online remains my favorite of hers:
  
  The Poet with His Face in His Hands
  
  You want to cry aloud for your
  mistakes. But to tell the truth the world
  doesn’t need anymore of that sound.
  
  So if you’re going to do it and can’t
  stop yourself, if your pretty mouth can’t
  hold it in, at least go by yourself across
  
  the forty fields and the forty dark inclines
  of rocks and water to the place where
  the falls are flinging out their white sheets
  
  like crazy, and there is a cave behind all that
  jubilation and water fun and you can
  stand there, under it, and roar all you
  
  want and nothing will be disturbed; you can
  drip with despair all afternoon and still,
  on a green branch, its wings just lightly touched
  
  by the passing foil of the water, the thrush,
  puffing out its spotted breast, will sing
  of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything.
  
  –Mary Oliver
  
  
  http://parabola-magazine.tumblr.com/p...
• 
  Jon Nakapalau

  Mary Oliver is a magician; with slight of hand she shows you what was right in front of you - but you did not see it. One of the best poetry books I have read so far this year.
• 
  elio

  her poetry just makes me feel so much
• 
  Vishy

  When I heard that Mary Oliver’s new poetry collection ‘Blue Horses’ has come out, I couldn’t wait to get it and read it. I read it in one breath. Here is what I think.
  
  ‘Blue Horses’ has thirty-eight poems. They are on topics which are close to Mary Oliver’s heart – nature, plants, trees, flowers, animals, insects, seasons. There are also poems on love, art, yoga, spirituality and other everyday topics. Each poem is different – each has a different number of lines, some are short some are long, there is no consistency in terms of form and structure – but all of them are beautiful. If one is new to Mary Oliver, one would expect that at some point she would unfurl all the poetic pyrotechnics and dazzle the reader – something that might intimidate the non-specialist reader of poetry – but one would be wrong. Mary Oliver doesn’t bother with metre and rhyme and rhythm and alliteration and the iamb and the dactyl and the trochee. She just writes one beautiful poem after another in free verse which is accessible to the general reader and touches our hearts with beautiful images and thoughts and in the process makes it look so deceptively simple, like the best poets do.
  
  I loved every poem in the book. Here are a few of my favourites.
  
  What I Can Do
  
  The television has two instruments that control it.
  I get confused.
  The washer asks me, do you want regular or delicate?
  Honestly, I just want clean.
  Everything is like that.
  I won’t even mention cell phones.
  
  I can turn on the light of the lamp beside my chair
  where a book is waiting, but that’s about it.
  
  Oh yes, and I can strike a match and make fire.
  
  
  
  No Matter What
  
  No matter what the world claims,
  its wisdom always growing, so it’s said,
  some things don’t alter with time :
  the first kiss is a good example,
  and the flighty sweetness of rhyme.
  
  No matter what the world preaches
  spring unfolds in its appointed time,
  the violets open and the roses,
  snow in its hour builds its shining curves,
  there’s the laughter of children at play,
  and the wholesome sweetness of rhyme.
  
  No matter what the world does,
  some things don’t alter with time.
  The first kiss, the first death.
  The sorrowful sweetness of rhyme.
  
  
  
  If I Wanted a Boat
  
  I would want a boat, if I wanted a
  boat, that bounded hard on the waves,
  that didn’t know starboard from port
  and wouldn’t learn, that welcomed
  dolphins and headed straight for the
  whales, that, when rocks were close,
  would slide in for a touch or two,
  that wouldn’t keep land in sight and
  went fast, that leaped into the spray.
  What kind of life is it always to plan
  and do, to promise and finish, to wish
  for the near and the safe? Yes, by the
  heavens, if I wanted a boat I would want
  a boat I couldn’t steer.
  
  
  
  Do Stones Feel?
  
  Do stones feel?
  Do they love their life?
  Or does their patience drown out everything else?
  
  When I walk on the beach I gather a few
  white ones, dark ones, the multiple colors,
  Don’t worry, I say, I’ll bring you back, and I do.
  
  Is the tree as it rises delighted with its many
  Branches,
  each one like a poem?
  
  Are the clouds glad to unburden their bundles of rain?
  
  Most of the world says no, no, it’s not possible.
  
  I refuse to think to such a conclusion.
  Too terrible it would be, to be wrong.
  
  
  
  Have you read ‘Blue Horses’? What do you think about it?
  
• 
  Dave Schaafsma

  Most long time fans of Oliver (but most will call her Mary, since she does seem to be speaking directly to you, and you get a sense from her, more than most poets, that you know her) will not be dissuaded. This is yet another love letter to you, and to the earth. And many of her familiar themes are here, which can be basically summed up: Pay attention, and especially so to nature, because if you do, you will see she is speaking to you. For example, stones she picks up and puts with water in a jar, as so many of us have done or still do, they speak to her, to us, of places and times. A poem about a painting of Blue Horses is acclaimed for doing what she has begged us for decades to do. He pays attention in his art, and that is a lovely poem.
  
  But these poems are not among her best work, as attractively packaged as they are, with the painting of the blue horses on the cover. The poems are generally short, and in this way inviting, but they are more discursive and reflective than lyrical. She talks to us. She wrestles with "the poetic" in these poems, both explicitly (she talks of this subject) and implicitly (in that she consciously works to make her language plain and every day, with a direct address to her readers) and what distances some people from poetry through language. And that is good, she reaches out to us, she is against affectations of the academic poets, and yet her language is often elegant and powerful in places.. just less so than in some of her earlier work. But I have loved her work and will likely read it/her until she writes no more, and then will read her again.
• 
  Tyler Bell

  4.5/5 Stars
  
  
  What a wonderful surprise!
  
  
  I've heard Mary Oliver's name being thrown here and there. I know of Upstream and Devotion, but I managed to find this little book for a bargained price, and decided to give it a try! (I also was extremely attracted to the cover)
  
  This was just a warm, cozy read. Oliver is so honest in her opinions, in her thoughts, in herself. It's just so refreshing to read from. She's not trying to be over-pretentious, but her writing is so beautiful! This is a great entry point I think to poetry!
  
  This collection tells of Oliver's relationship with nature, and how it has affected her throughout her life. Different artists also make some cameos (Keates and Franz Marc [the painter of the cover art]) and she touches on how they've shaped her as a person.
  
  Honestly, reading this while outside is the best way to consume it. I highly recommend this collection, and I'll definitely be reading more of Oliver's works!
• 
  Diane Barnes

  There are not a lot of poems in this collection, but each one is perfect. No one can write about nature like Mary Oliver. I read "The Country of Trees" four times and found something new with each reading. That poem alone was worth the price of the book, and more. I'll keep this one close to hand, because I'll pick it up often.
• 
  Diane S ☔

  Collection of short but wonderful recollections. Nature and the realism of every day life. Had to laugh at the poem about yoga, I really related to this one since I have the same problem.
  
  Thanks Jeannie for the recommendation.
  
  
• 
  Marcia

  The epigraph beckons you in...
  
  If you don't break your ropes while you're alive
  do you think
  ghosts will do it after?
  ~Kabir
  
  ...and the beauty bids you stay.
  
• 
  clem

  
  storygraph |
  instagram
  
  now… that is a WRITER. who uses WORDS.
  
  
• 
  Elena Sala

  BLUE HORSES (2014) is a slim collection of poems about the natural world and the wonder of being alive. Like in Mary Oliver's earlier collections, the syntax is simple and the meaning seems deceptively clear. In her poems, the close observation of the natural world is driven by her drive to probe for spiritual and philosophical answers and her desire to become increasingly conscious of the world around her: "I would like people to remember of me,/ how inexhaustible was her mindfulness.”
  
  You will not find verbal pyrotechnics in Oliver's poems. She summarizes her poetics early on in this book: "In a poem/ people want/ something fancy/ but even more/ they want/ something inexplicable/ made plain, /easy to swallow." Accessibility, then, is of the utmost importance, without ever resigning depth. In this collection there is beauty and joy to be found, and new exhilarating ways to look at life and all that surrounds us.
• 
  Ju$tin

  it was pretty g.d. flat but a few parts stood out
• 
  Laura

  Beautiful, spiritual, and sometimes funny. I loved reading Oliver's poems a few each night before bed.
• 
  Julie G

  My favorite from this collection:
  
  The oak tree
  loves patience,
  the mountain is
  still looking,
  as it has for centuries,
  for a word to say about
  the gradual way it
  slides itself
  back to the
  world below
  to begin again,
  in another life,
  to be fertile.
  When the wind blows
  the grass
  whistles and whispers
  in myths and riddles
  and not in our language
  but one far older.
  The sea is the sea is
  always the sea.
  These things
  you can count on
  as you walk about the world
  happy or sad,
  talky or silent, making
  weapons, love, poems.
  The briefest of fires.