Blue Horses: Poems

By Mary Oliver

In this stunning collection of new poems, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life’s work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature.

Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and impermanence. Whether considering a bird’s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees, or the artworks of Franz Marc, Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.

At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes. Humorous, gentle, and always honest, Oliver is a visionary of the natural world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Release date: Oct 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9780698170049

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (1935–2019), one of the most popular and widely honored poets in the U.S., was the author of more than thirty books of poetry and prose. Over the course of her long and illustrious career, she received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for American Primitive in 1984. Oliver also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence. She lived most of her life in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Book preview

Cover for Blue Horses

PENGUIN BOOKS

BLUE HORSES

Born in a small town in Ohio, Mary Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of twenty-eight. Over the course of her long career, she has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has led workshops and held residencies at various colleges and universities, including Bennington College, where she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching. Oliver currently lives in Florida. She died in 2019.

SELECT TITLES ALSO BY MARY OLIVER

POETRY

Dog Songs

A Thousand Mornings

American Primitive

Dream Work

New and Selected Poems, Volume One

White Pine

The Leaf and the Cloud

What Do We Know

Why I Wake Early

New and Selected Poems, Volume Two

Swan

PROSE

Blue Pastures

Winter Hours

A Poetry Handbook

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PENGUIN BOOKS

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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First published in the United States of America by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2014

Published in Penguin Books 2016

Copyright © 2014 by NW Orchard LLC

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish

Reviews for Blue Horses

[bell7_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For a self-described non-reader of poetry, I've read a fair amount of poetry this year. Blue Horses takes its name from the common subject of Franz Marc's paintings, and the poem by the same name is about the painter. Much of the poetry is about nature and the poet narrator's relationship to it, a common theme of Mary Oliver's poetry. I especially liked "The Hummingbirds" and "Such Silence", followed by "The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac" which was longer than the others and in reaction to the author's cancer diagnosis and thoughts on the transience of life and how we always want it to be a bit longer. It's not my favorite of Oliver's collections, but it's one that I think her fans would enjoy, full of clear writing and plenty of natural imagery.

[psalva-706031 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my first Mary Oliver. What gorgeous poetry! Words perfect for harboring in the back of my memory and reflecting on. The kind of book that would be suited to taking on a hike or visiting a cabin in the forest, and the kind of book that makes me long to do those things. There were too many great poems to pick favorites.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I confess that I do not read a lot of poetry, but when I do I often chose poets like Mary Oliver as I find she paints the most beautiful pictures with her words. Pictures of nature and pictures of life. In Blue Horses, I read with wonder the imagery that she is able to put down on the page, how she is able to write of the beauty of nature by describing herons, owls, deer and rabbits in a simple yet heart-felt manner.

Blue Horses is a collection of her poetry that allows the reader to see why she was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. She often writes of her awe at the world and does so in simple language that captures her readers imagination. Reading her work definitely makes me feel more connected to nature.

While this is quite a short book of about 95 pages, it nevertheless, gives the reader a lot of images to reflect upon. Occasionally there is a touch of magic to her words making the impossible seem within reach. Reading these poems allowed me to refresh my senses and lift my spirits.

[dominiquedavis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

(3.5 rounded up)

"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."

[greeniezona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I took my thirteen-year-old to the library shortly after Oliver's death, and they had a lovely display of her work in the lobby. Of course I couldn't resist adding a volume to my already too-large stack. Somehow I don't own any of Oliver's books (though without looking, I would have predicted that I did), so it was a good chance to get better acquainted.

I chose a good volume, I think. One poem "Rumi (for Coleman Barks)" is definitely after the style of Barks's translations, but then I could feel Rumi's impressions on many of the poems that followed. In particular, "I Don't Want to be Demure or Respectable," which I might not have been surprised to find in a Rumi/Barks collection, except that there was something just a touch feminine around the edges.

I love how accessible/open/affecting Oliver's poetry is. A prime example of the deceptively simple style -- every once in a while you get a glimpse of how much skill it must take to write so plainly.

If I saw a used copy of this book anywhere I would buy it immediately.

[ar_bookbird · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great writing!

[mattcembrola · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mixed feelings about poetry.
You can say whatever you want, and
don’t have to make any sense.
Leaves everything to the imagination.
Can say a lot with very few words.
The spacing is important in the poems’ rhythm and effect – different from a few sentences strung together on a random topic.
Notable use of contractions throughout – more like speech, but also another rhythmic effect.
This is her talking to you, or to herself but you’re welcome to listen in.

Note: I won a copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.

[rmckeown_9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mary Oliver is quickly becoming one of my favorite poets. Her latest collection, Blue Horses, pleases the eye and ear every bit as much as all of her previous works I have read.

As is true of many of her poems, Oliver focuses on nature. The selections in this collection, however, seem quite a bit more philosophical than most of the others I have experienced. For example, the first poem in the collection combines these two ideas. In “After Reading Lucretius, I Go to the Pond,” Oliver writes, “The slippery green frog / that went to his death / in the heron’s pink throat / was my small brother, // and the heron / with the white plumes / like a crown on his heard / who is washing now his great sword-beak / in the shining pond / is my tall brother. // My heart dresses in black / and dances” (1).

I also love the humor in her poems, particularly “First Yoga Lesson.” “‘Be a lotus in the pond,’” she said, “‘opening / slowly, no single energy tugging / against another but peacefully, / all together’.” // I couldn’t even touch my toes. / “‘Feel your quadriceps stretching?’” she asked. / Well, something was certainly stretching. // Standing impressively upright, she / raised one leg and placed it against / the other, then lifted her arms and / shook her hands like leaves. “Be a tree,’” she said. // I lay on the floor, exhausted. / But to be a lotus in the pond / opening slowly, and very slowly rising -- / that I could do” (7).

As always, Oliver’s poems contain vivid images, which take the reader onto the floor, on a mat, stretching. She accomplishes this feat over and over with the plainest of language. I can’t get enough of her way with words.

When I found Blue Horses, I noticed a slim volume by Oliver nearby: A Poetry Handbook. I am so sorry I missed this explication of all the intricacies of poetry originally published in 1994. I recommend this slim volume for anyone interested in poetry. I found her Introduction highly informative. Here a few random paragraphs. Oliver writes, “Everyone knows that poets are born and not made in school. This is true also of painters, sculptors, and musicians. Something that is essential can’t be taught; it can only be given, or earned, or formulated in a manner too mysterious to be picked apart and redesigned for the next person. // Still, painters, sculptors, and musicians require a lively acquaintance with the history of their particular field and with past as well as current theories and techniques. And the same is true of poets. Whatever can’t be taught, there is a great deal that can, and must be learned.” Oliver says she wrote this book, “in an effort to give the student a variety of technical skills -- that is options. It is written to empower the beginning writer who stands between two marvelous and complex things – an experience (or an idea or a feeling), and the urge to tell about it in the best possible conjunction of words.

Just a smidgeon over 200 pages, these two works by Mary Oliver – Blue Horses: Poems and A Poetry Handbook – are excellent starting points for those curious about what makes a poem a poem and handy guides for those who want to sharpen their skills. Both 5 stars

--Jim, 12/31/14

[jnwelch_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've read more of Mary Oliver's later work than her earlier, and from comments I've read that may be a good thing - some find her earlier work a little precious and preachy. I enjoy her close observations about nature, her spiritual inquiries, and her sense of humor about herself and being human. One of my favorites in Blue Horses, "First Yoga Lesson", shows her humor:

“Be a lotus in the pond,” she said, “opening
slowly, no single energy tugging
against another but peacefully,
all together.”

I couldn’t even touch my toes.
“Feel your quadriceps stretching?” she asked.
Well, something was certainly stretching.

Standing impressively upright, she
raised one leg and placed it against
the other, then lifted her arms and
shook her hands like leaves. “Be a tree,” she said.

I lay on the floor, exhausted.
But to be a lotus in the pond
opening slowly, and very slowly rising—
that I could do.

In "Blueberries" she talks about what a pleasure it is to be able to buy "fresh blueberries all year long" from "various countries in South America", but also about what is lost that way:

Maybe it's myself that I miss. The
field, and the sparrow singing at the
edge of the woods. And the doe that one
morning came upon me unaware, all
tense and gorgeous. She stamped her hoof
as you would to any intruder. Then gave
me a long look, as if to say, Okay, you
stay in your patch, I'll stay in mine.
Which is what we did. Try packing that
up, South America.

In another one, she looks at the question, can we depart from our parent's shadow? The answer: gladly.

Everything I can think of that my parents
thought or did I don't think and I don't do.
I opened windows, they shut them. I pulled
open the curtains, they shut them. If you
get my drift.

In that same poem, titled "To Be Human is to Sing Your Own Song", she compares us to song sparrow nestlings who "must listen/carefully to the father bird as he sings/ and make their own song in imitation of his."

But I know a
child doesn't have to. Doesn't have to.
Doesn't have to. And I didn't.

Some of the poems are just gorgeous, like the aptly titled "What Gorgeous Thing", about the bluebird's song in the early morning.

Three poems, "Little Lord Love", "Little Crazy Love Song" and "I Woke" address her falling in love late in life. They're even sexy, which I don't think is common in her poetry. Her giddiness is contagious. While waiting for her lover, for example, "softly my right hand fondles my left hand/ as though it were you."

I read somewhere that she is, surprisingly to me, America's best-selling poet. Her accessibility and friendliness likely help explain that. There also is an ease she has attained at this stage of her career that makes her awfully good company.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Thousand Mornings is still my favorite, by far.