Mary Oliver: Poet of Awe
Mary Oliver was in a class by herself. Distinguished with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, she was viewed with suspicion by literary critics for her status as a kind of rock star poet. For those of us who read her like a daily liturgy, her name is synonymous with other such essential words: mystery, wild, awe, terror, devotion, gratitude, grace. All of them come alive in her simple poems, that seem to rise from the crossroad of nature and spirituality, brimming with good questions. Fabiana Fondevila begins her process of saying goodbye in this essay full of beautiful snippets from the poet who helped so many of us find our way home to devotion and prayer through wonder and awe.
READ FULL STORY