Blue Iris: Poems and Essays

by Mary Oliver

A rich collection of ten poems, two essays, and two dozen of Mary Oliver's classic works on flowers, trees, and plants of all sorts, elegantly illustrated, Blue Iris is the essential companion to Owls and Other Fantasies , one of the best-selling volumes of poetry of 2003 and a Book Sense 76 selection.

Genres: Poetry, Essays, Nature, Nonfiction, Adult, LGBT, Queer

73 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

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.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite poem in the collection, not because it's the most exceptional poem, but because it's the poem that wound itself most firmly round my heart, and reminded me of the final days I spent with my grandmother, when she knew and I knew that she was dying, but she chose not to speak of it, but did as she had always done—silently admired the roses:

Roses

The look on her face in a dream
Stayed with me all day
Like a promise I had failed.

Not that I had made any—
Not that I could remember—
But she was looking into the north

Where nothing lives but white clouds
Of crying birds, like bits of snow.
And the grass on which she was standing,

And the roses thick on the fences
Were soft and bright, able to renew themselves
As a woman, finally, cannot do.

[Kimber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisitely beautiful. Of flowers that visualized this way rival Georgia O'Keefe. Of merging consciousness. I don't think I could express Oneness any other way than by a Mary Oliver poem.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Mary Oliver was a character...😁👆🏼
All these poems are about flowers, woods, gardening, birds and nature in general

If i had another life
I want to spend it all on some unstinting happiness.
I would be a fox, or a tree
full of waving branches.
I wouldn't mind being a rose
in a field full of roses.
Fear has not yet ocurred to them, nor ambition.
Reason they have not yet thought of.
Neither do they ask how long they must be roses, and then what.
Or any other foolish question.

[helena ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5☆
let me start off by saying that i don't like this poetry structure AT ALL, it feels very stiff and doesn't flow well to me. mary oliver still writes beautifully, though, i just don't think this was the collection for me.

pre-read: gonna read some essays to feel smarter and put my brain to work

[oumaima · Rating 5 out of 5]

hello, old friend. i read this and now i want to hold it all quietly in my soul. then i will go give my yellow roses fresh water. there is a gentle magic to mary oliver's words, a kindness i am yet to find elsewhere.

[naviya · Rating 5 out of 5]

-tender, anti-capitalist ~vibes~
-good for ur gratuitous lesbian plant tattoos
-i read it and then immediately wanted to read it again but it is 3am and i must sleep
-it feels like a balm
-i want to sit in a field of flowers, early in the morning with tea and read it 1000x times

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked out every Mary Oliver book in the library. I still want more.

[Sunny D · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal collection, probably my favorite I've read of Mary Oliver's so far. Her adoration for and desire to learn from the natural world is infectious. I feel I'll return to these pages often. I read the poems aloud to my kitten, and he nibbled the corners of the book while I did. Probably because he liked the sentiment.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read this book in one sitting on this delicious Friday evening as the sun sat outside the window. For me, this was an evening of pure bliss. This volume from Oliver's work compiles several of her poems and a few essays that focus on the beauty and wonder of the natural world particularly flowers, trees and plants. One of my all-time favorite poems “Peonies” is contained in this volume. You can read this poem at the Writer’s Almanac. Just click on this link:http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org...

A quote from Emerson opens this book:
“Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.”
As I read this book, I chuckled, I smiled and I pondered. In it there, is the science, the beauty, and the brutality of nature translated through the honest and spiritual mind of Oliver. She takes in the natural world with such a keen eye but writes about it with such depth and humanity; but it is not wearying depth but refreshment. Among my favorites in the volume.: “The Oak Tree at the Entrance to Blackwater Pond”; “Peonies”; “Lilies”; “White Flowers” ( I do believe I’d like this poem read at my funeral); and last, “How Would You Live Then?”
One very good line at the end of a section called “Upstream” says“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
This has my highest recommendation for when you need a deep, deep breath of relaxation and release.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Attention is the beginning of devotion." :')

Perfect little poetry book for spring!

[kate✰ · Rating 5 out of 5]

my sister gifted me a thoughtfully annotated copy of this book for my 25th birthday, and i only just got around to reading it. i sat in the sunshine on my patio, straining to hear the birds and the rustling of the trees over the sounds of cars and bikes, which felt apt. mary oliver, as always, stuns.

so this is the world.
I’m not in it.
It is beautiful.
–excerpt from October, 1992.

[shensis · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Of course nothing stops the cold, black, curved blade from hooking forward— of course loss is the great lesson. But also I say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it’s done right, is a kind of holiness (...)”

(finished this outside, on a sunfilled porchstep, graced with birdsong. i think miss oliver would have approved)

[Alithea · Rating 5 out of 5]

“so this is the world.
I’m not in it.
It is beautiful.”

[Salem ☥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Last night in the fields I lay down in the darkness to think about death, but instead I fell asleep, as if in a vast and sloping room filled with those white flowers that open all summer, sticky and untidy, in the warm fields. When I woke the morning light was just slipping in front of the stars, and I was covered with blossoms. I don’t know how it happened—I don’t know if my body went diving down under the sugary vines in some sleep-sharpened affinity with the depths, or whether that green energy rose like a wave and curled over me, claiming me in its husky arms. I pushed them away, but I didn’t rise. Never in my life had I felt so plush, or so slippery, or so resplendently empty. Never in my life had I felt myself so near that porous line where my own body was done with and the roots and the stems and the flowers began.”

[Regine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gently observant. The touch of her poetry is a balm for the soul. “Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

[ria · Rating 4 out of 5]

attention is the beginning of devotion..............

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Flowers, like people and birds, are travelers, and will leave a garden if they can."

[Florence Millo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never been a poetry fan. Never could get it. But I was introduced recently to Mary Oliver and it is love at first poem. Can't wait to check out another book of her poetry from the library and savor my way through it!

[Himadri ॐ ˚꩜ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I lie down in the fields of goldenrod, and everlasting.
Who could find me?
My thoughts simplify. I have not done a thousand things
or a hundred things but, perhaps, a few.
As for wondering about answers that are not available except
in books, though all my childhood I was sent there
to find them, I have learned
to leave all that behind

as in summer I take off my shoes and my socks,
my jacket, my hat, and go on
happier, through the fields. ”

Excerpt from the poem
Just Lying on the Grass at Blackwater

[Eliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What if the brook slid downhill past your bedroom window so you could listen to its slow prayers as you fell asleep?” (57)

Ah, Oliver. Always a friendly reminder that the city/suburb life will not (cannot?) hold me in its opportunistic grasp forever. Find me in the slowness of the woods and the faith of the fields.

[Shelby Anne Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Now that I'm free to be myself, who am I?"

Mary Oliver never fails to breathe life into me whilst completely taking my breath away at the same time. Rarely do I ever come across writing that resonates, moves, and stays with me the way hers does; this may be my new favorite collection.

[Bree Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Thousand Mornings continues to be my favorite Mary Oliver collection but this was good.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it,. But some I didn’t like how some of the poems were broken up, or made it harder to read and understand.

[ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

mary oliver my beloved! forever my inspiration. “upstream” was my favorite.

[☀︎El In Oz☀︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Lovely as always Mary ❤️

[Emmett Glazbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

need to read this again and annotate it like a freak! there were some good bits that really stuck with me, and some that i felt not as connected to. maybe i should read it slower

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third Mary Oliver's book that I have read.
" Stunning, well-crafted poems and essays, poignant, optimistic, charming, appreciative"

This is my favourite Mary Oliver's work of art so far.

"Attention is the beginning of devotion" Mary Oliver

Loved it

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Mary Oliver collections: reading her poetry and seeing life through her eyes is a gift. I never get tired of her work.

[Chaimaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

fave one :
"In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be. Wordsworth studied himself and found the subject astonishing. Actually what he studied was his relationship to the harmonies and also the discords of the natural world. That’s what created the excitement." ❤

[لَيلى · Rating 5 out of 5]

نعِمت بقراءة هذا الكتاب حَول أصوات الطيور ورائحة الشجر العتيق وفي ربيعًا أعلن حضوره تمامًا وقد تخلّى عن بقايا الشتاء ورفض تقبُّل بدايات الصيف
The Ramble, May 2024
Who could find me?