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" I have the feeling that a lot of poets writing now are - they sort of tap dance through it. "
Mary Oliver
Now
Feeling
Dance
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" I acknowledge my feeling and gratitude for life by praising the world and whoever made all these things. "
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World
Feeling
Gratitude
" Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? "
Mary Oliver
You
Plan
Life
" I went to India and was quite taken with it. There's a feeling there that things are holy first and useful second. "
Mary Oliver
First
India
Feeling
" The challenge is to keep up with all the new poets at the same time I love the old ones. "
Mary Oliver
Challenge
Time
New
" Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth. "
Mary Oliver
Poetry
Earth
Arts
" To tell you the truth, I believe everything - tigers, trees, stones - are sentient in one way or another. You'd never catch me idly kicking a stone, for example. "
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Me
Believe
You
" Writers sometimes give up what is most strange and wonderful about their writing - soften their roughest edges - to accommodate themselves toward a group response. "
Mary Oliver
Group
Strange
Up
" I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem. "
Mary Oliver
Always
Feel
Necessary
" Writers must... take care of the sensibility that houses the possibility of poems. "
Mary Oliver
Houses
Care
Take Care
" I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings. "
Mary Oliver
Writing
Working
Trying
" I know the sag of the unfinished poem. And I know the release of the poem that is finished. "
Mary Oliver
Poem
Finished
Know
" As a child, what captivated me was reading the poems myself and realizing that there was a world without material substance which was nevertheless as alive as any other. "
Mary Oliver
World
Alive
Me
" Poetry is meant to be heard. "
Mary Oliver
Heard
Poetry
Meant
" We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly could, I stayed where I was happy. "
Mary Oliver
Hunger
Heart
Happiness
" To find a new word that is accurate and different, you have to be alert for it. "
Mary Oliver
Find
Different
Alert
" To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. "
Mary Oliver
Love
Life
Live
" If I have any lasting worth, it will be because I have tried to make people remember what the Earth is meant to look like. "
Mary Oliver
Worth
Earth
People
" I grew up in a confused house: too much unwanted attention or none at all. "
Mary Oliver
Attention
Too Much
Up
" 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
Me
" I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write. "
Mary Oliver
Kind
Music
Myself
" There is nothing better than work. Work is also play; children know that. Children play earnestly as if it were work. But people grow up, and they work with a sorrow upon them. It's duty. "
Mary Oliver
People
Children
Know
" So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray. "
Mary Oliver
You
Flow
How
" I worked privately, and sometimes I feel that might be better for poets than the kind of social workshop gathering. My school was the great poets: I read, and I read, and I read. "
Mary Oliver
School
Better
Sometimes
" I decided very early that I wanted to write. But I didn't think of it as a career. I didn't even think of it as a profession... It was the most exciting thing, the most powerful thing, the most wonderful thing to do with my life. "
Mary Oliver
Early
Powerful
Think
" I was very careful never to take an interesting job. If you have an interesting job, you get interested in it. "
Mary Oliver
Job
Interesting
You
" I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write. "
Mary Oliver
Stop
Walk
Words
" My parents didn't care very much what I did, and that was probably a blessing. "
Mary Oliver
Did
Much
Blessing
" When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. "
Mary Oliver
World
My Life
Life
" Sometimes breaking the rules is extending the rules. "
Mary Oliver
Extending
Sometimes
Rules
" To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. "
Mary Oliver
Our
Attention
Work