Mary Oliver (9/10/35 – 1/17/57)

Mary Oliver (9/10/35 – 1/17/57)

Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

What is it that you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?

What is it that you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
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.
Listen–are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
I simply do not distinguish between work and play.
Poetry isn’t a profession, it’s a way of life. It’s an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.

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