Why I Wake Early
By Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver’s new collection of poetry, Why I Wake Early (Beacon Press, $22), features 47 previously unpublished poems on subjects ranging from watching a black snake swim to studying the lean shape of a bean to discovering “How Everything Adores Being Alive.” A past winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award, Oliver has the ability to transform everyday life events into something extraordinary. “Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!” she writes with sad truth in “Snow Geese.” In “Luna,” Oliver describes with childlike purity how the moon “lay on the ground/like a broken leaf/and didn’t move,/which hurt my heart.” Oliver shows us a natural world that is too often forgotten, in all its humor, grace and absolute loveliness.
— Emmy Nicklin
