In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars



of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders



of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is



nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned



in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side



is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world



you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it



against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

— American Primitive by Mary Oliver © Back Bay Books, 1983.

Mary Oliver’s most acclaimed volume of poetry, American Primitive contains fifty visionary poems about nature, the humanity in love, and the wilderness of America, both within our bodies and outside. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

Read more about America’s most beloved poet complied in this Remembrance of Mary Oliver (1935-2019) and her astonishing poetry. It contains links to articles, interviews, and poetry readings, as well as many of her favorite poems I’ve loved and posted over the years.

^{— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.}