“Maybe [the ocean and I] were on the same side, comprised of the same things, water mostly, also mystery. The ocean swallowed things up--boats, people--but it didn't look outside itself for fulfillment. It could take whatever skimmed its surface or it could leave it. In its depths already lived a whole world of who-knows-what. It was self-sustaining. I should be like that. It made me wonder what was inside of me.”
― The Pisces
― The Pisces
“The final portrait is often furthest from the truth.”
― Columbine
― Columbine
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
― Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
― Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
“In some ways, my moods did and did not exist. People said that you could will a mood into being or will it away. Just think positively. But I never felt that way. My moods were their own entities, even if no one could understand why they were there. That was what made me scared of feelings. I realized now what I had to do, in spite of what others said, was not try to change a mood but surrender to it. I had to surrender to whatever feelings arrived and in doing so I could maybe ride them, floating on the waves. I decided I was going to surrender.”
― The Pisces
― The Pisces
“Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.”
― Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
― Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
Hannah’s 2025 Year in Books
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