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" Believe me, if anybody has a job and starts at 9, there's no reason why they can't get up at 4:30 or five and write for a couple of hours, and give their employers their second-best effort of the day - which is what I did. "

Mary Oliver

Effort

Reason

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Mary Oliver

I Believe

Art

" I have the feeling that a lot of poets writing now are - they sort of tap dance through it. "

" I went to India and was quite taken with it. There's a feeling there that things are holy first and useful second. "

" There were times over the years when life was not easy, but if you're working a few hours a day and you've got a good book to read, and you can go outside to the beach and dig for clams, you're okay. "

" You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about. "

" To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. "

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" I read Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, every day. "

" So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray. "

" Wasn't it Emerson who said, 'My life is for itself and not for a spectacle'? I have a happy, full, good life because I hold it private. "

" People want poetry. They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work. "

" I grew up in a confused house: too much unwanted attention or none at all. "

Mary Oliver

Attention

Too Much

" One thing I do know is that poetry, to be understood, must be clear. "