The Nature of Poetry and Vice Versa

“Writing poems . . . is a way of offering praise to the world. In this book you will find, set among the prose pieces, a few poems. Think of them that way, as little alleluias.” —Mary Oliver, Long Life

Poetry is the art of making worlds of words. Mary Oliver contends that poetry is “a ceremony of words, a story, a prayer, an invitation, a flow of words that reaches out and, hopefully, without being real in the way that the least incident is real, is able to stir in the reader a real response.” Poetry is a way of making real worlds that aren't confined to “the real world.”

All poetry is an example of human creativity. These poems help us to see the world, and say the world, so that we can love the world in all the creative expressions of our lives.

• Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
• Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
• Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
• Wendell Berry, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
• Mary Oliver, The Sun
• Mary Oliver, A Dream of Trees
• Terry Tempest Williams, There Is a Pain
• Chris Boyd ('92), Easter Spring
• Richard Wilbur, Advice to a Prophet
• Robert Frost, Birches
• Wendell Berry, What we need is here
• Wendell Berry, In a Motel Parking Lot
• Margaret Atwood, Elegy for the Giant Tortoises (you must scroll down a way to see it)
• Jorge Luis Borges, The Just (you must scroll down a bit to see it)
• John Caddy, Self Expressing Earth
• John Caddy, We Share (you must to scroll down a bit to see it)
• William Henry Channing, My Symphony
• Amy Clampitt, On the Disadvantages of Central Heating
• E.E. Cummings, I Thank You God for Most This Amazing
• Robert Frost, The Gift Outright
• Denise Levertov, Come into Animal Presence
• Denise Levertov, Beginners