Selected Poems: 1965-2005

by Mary Oliver

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?

Few modern poets are as beloved or as quoted as Mary Oliver. Spanning the major decades of her long career, this collection showcases Oliver’s remarkable lyrical powers and her reverential attention to the natural world. Her poetry sees life everywhere and asks what to do with it ­– how can we find our place among such beauty, such pain?

Populated by wading birds, early snowfalls, and swaying cornfields, her reflections are the record of a life spent walking alone in the wild. These timeless poems meet and touch their reader in any season of life, brightened by Oliver’s gift for amazement, shadowed by her constant awareness of harshness and death. Her words teach us to live with our eyes open wider.

Genres: Poetry

437 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 30, 2026

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

[Heather H]

Does anyone write more quotable poems than Mary Oliver? And in a career so prolific, where to begin? This collection spans 6 decades so it seemed a great place to start, although her skill in finding the magic in the everyday does make me wonder if i can ever consider myself a poet. Such a life as she had was not without pain, but she finds the joy in the small moments, in nature, and in spending time outside. She exhorts us in verse to truly live, not to simply exist. These mainly quite simple poems are no less profound for their simplicity and will be sure to provide inspiration whether you want to become more mindful or indeed, engage in the writing yourself.

[Tony Stacey]

Really monotonous after a while