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Mary Oliver

Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild.

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Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.

– Mary Oliver

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Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

– Mary Oliver

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Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

– Mary Oliver

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Sometimes the desire to be lost again, as long ago, comes over me like a vapor. With growth into adulthood, responsibilities claimed me, so many heavy coats. I didn't choose them, I don't fault them, but it took time to reject them. Now in the spring I kneel, I put my face into the packets of violets, the dampness, the freshness, the sense of ever-ness. Something is wrong, I know it, if I don't keep my attention on eternity. May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful. May I stay forever upstream. May I look down upon the windflower and the bull thistle and the coreopsis with the greatest respect.

– Mary Oliver

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Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

– Mary Oliver

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

– Mary Oliver

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You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.

– Mary Oliver

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