Beacon Broadside

Poetry You Can Watch for Poetry Month

In honor of Poetry Month, here's a collection of poetry you can watch and hear in the poet's own voice. Add your favorites in the comments!

Mary Oliver reads "The Summer Day"

 

Mary Oliver reading "Wild Geese" and other poems

 

Sonia Sanchez reads "10 Haiku for Max Roach" (from Morning Haiku)

 

Craig Teicher reads "The Virtues of Birds"

 

C. D. Wright reading two poems at the Dodge Poetry Festival

 

Kevin Young reads at the Dodge Poetry Festival

 

Dobby Gibson reads "Beauty Supply" on a bus in Minneapolis

Poetry in Public: Beauty Supply by Dobby Gibson from Works Progress on Vimeo.

 

Mary Oliver: About Angels and About Trees

Listen to Mary Oliver read "About Angels and About Trees" from the CD Many Miles:

About Angels And About Trees (Evidence) by Mary Oliver

 

About Angels and About Trees

Where do angels
fly in the firmament,

and how many can dance
on the head of a pin?

Well, I don’t care
about that pin dance,

what I know is that
they rest, sometimes,

in the tops of the trees

and you can see them,
or almost see them,

or, anyway, think: what a
wonderful idea.

I have lost as you and
others have possibly lost a

beloved one,
and wonder, where are they now?

The trees, anyway, are
miraculous, full of

angels (ideas); even
empty they are a

good place to look, to put
the heart at rest—all those

leaves breathing the air, so

peaceful and diligent, and certainly
ready to be

the resting place of
strange, winged creatures

that we, in this world, have loved.

Copyright @2009 by Mary Oliver. From Evidence: Poems, Beacon Press.

 

 

In Honor of the Solstice, Mary Oliver's The Summer Day

In honor of the summer solstice, some poetic inspiration from Mary Oliver, who asks, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?" 

"The Summer Day" first appeared in House of Light (Beacon Press, 1990), and has been reprinted in New and Selected Poems, Volume 1 (Beacon Press, 1992) and The Truro Bear and Other Adventures (Beacon Press, 2008). 

This poem, which many refer to as "The Grasshopper," is one of the best-known and often quoted of Mary Oliver's work. This recording of the poet reading her own work is from At Blackwater Pond, an audio CD of Mary Oliver reading forty of her poems. 

Over the course of her long and illustrious career, Mary Oliver has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence.

Mary Oliver reads "The Summer Day" (aka "The Grasshopper")

More Mary Oliver on Beacon Broadside: 

A Bear in Provincetown

Maria Shriver Interviews Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver on the Power of Voice

Like Mary Oliver on Facebook.

The Summer Day

 Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
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?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Copyright @ 1990 by Mary Oliver. First published in House of Light, Beacon Press. Reprinted in The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays, Beacon Press.

Summer picnic basket photo from Bigstock.

A Bear in Provincetown

Apparently a bear is attempting to find summer lodging in Provincetown (poor thing must not realize that he should have had his rental all lined up by April). Wildlife officials are out attempting to relocate him to a less-touristy locale. Of course, hearing "Cape Cod" and "Bear" instantly made us think of Mary Oliver. So here's a poem from Why I Wake Early to listen to and read as we follow the ursine updates from the Cape. (You may also want to delve into The Truro Bear and Other Adventures for more thoughts on these wild beasts.)

UPDATE: The bear has been captured and relocated. But will he come back for Bear Week? 

Listen to "Bear" by Mary Oliver from At Blackwater Pond

Bear

It’s not my track,
I say, seeing
the ball of the foot and the wide heel
and the naily, untrimmed
toes. And I say again,
for emphasis,

to no one but myself, since no one is
with me. This is
not my track, and this is an extremely
large foot, I wonder
how large a body must be to make
such a track, I am beginning to make

bad jokes. I have read probably
a hundred narratives where someone saw
just what I am seeing. Various things
happened next. A fairly long list, I won’t

go into it. But not one of them told
what happened next—I mean, before whatever happens—

how the distances light up, how the clouds
are the most lovely shapes you have ever seen, how

the wild flowers at your feet begin distilling a fragrance
different, and sweeter than any you ever stood upon before—how

every leaf on the whole mountain is aflutter. 

Copyright @ 2004 by Mary Oliver. First published in Why I Wake Early, Beacon Press. Audio from At Blackwater Pond, Beacon Press. 

Bear photo by lazymonkey on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons.

National Poetry Month: Mary Oliver Giveaway

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Beacon Press is giving you a chance to win autographed copies of Mary Oliver's books. VISIT BEACON.ORG FOR MORE DETAILS. 

• One winner will receive signed copies of New and Selected Poems, Volume Two; Thirst; and Swan; and a poster featuring a poem from Swan.
• Three winners will receive a signed copy of Swan and a poster.
• Five winners will receive a poster.

If you love Mary Oliver's poetry, then enter our drawing!

We'll take entries starting 9 a.m. EST April 12 and ending at 5 p.m. EST April 30, 2012. You may enter one time per day. Drawing is open to U.S. residents only. Winners will be chosen at random from all entries received and will be notified the week of April 30. TO ENTER, VISIT BEACON.ORG FOR MORE DETAILS. Good luck!

 

 

Mary Oliver reads "The Summer Day"

In honor of the first day of summer (and a glorious first day it is here at the top of Beacon Hill), here is some inspiration from Mary Oliver. She reads her poem, "The Summer Day," the audio of which is available on At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver reads Mary Oliver. The poem first appeared in House of Light, and was reprinted in her National Book Award-winning New and Selected Poems: Volume One. 

Echoing the words of the poet, we ask "[W]hat is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?"

Mary Oliver reads "The Summer Day"

Mary Oliver Reading Three of Her Poems at Emory University

At the end of January, Mary Oliver gave a reading at Emory University. For those among us who had the great joy of seeing her, and for the rest of us who were unable to be there, here is a video of her reading three poems at that event: "Tom Dance's Gift of a White Bark Pinecone," "Wild Geese," and "Peonies."

In honor of National Poetry Month, Beacon Press will give away five signed copies of Mary Oliver's Swan: Poems and Prose Poems. 

For details and to read a poem from the book, visit MaryOliver.Beacon.org. You can enter once a day between now and Friday, April 15, at noon EST.

Mary Oliver: Many Miles

In honor of National Poetry Month, we share this essay by Mary Oliver, which was included in the CD Many Miles: Mary Oliver reads Mary Oliver. 

Beacon Press is giving away five signed copies of Mary Oliver's Swan: Poems and Prose Poems. 

For details and to read a poem from the book, visit MaryOliver.Beacon.org. You can enter once a day between now and Friday, April 15, at noon EST.

All our lives, at least seasonally, the redbird sings, and the oriole and the wren, and in April the ponds are reliably loud with the singing of frogs, and on long winter afternoons the snow-heavy wind whistles in the pines. But our own voices, the particular voices of those who are dear or important to us-- or both-- vanish utterly at the end of the season of life. And how thoroughly also are the sounds of a certain place gone when we visit it no more, though visual joys, sometimes with great clarity, may remain in the mind.

In Rajastan, in India, a man, a woman, and a child were singing outside a restaurant; I can still see them in their vibrant gypsy clothes, the man holding a stringed instrument somewhat like a guitar, but smaller and shaped differently, rather like a gourd. But I cannot hear anymore their loud brisk, joyful singing, a strange and powerful performance. How can this be, that the eyes can keep so many pictures, and the ears have no such reliable and comforting memory? It was perhaps the most exciting music I had ever heard; I think I might have followed it anywhere; but we drove on to the next town, and now in my ears there is nothing.

Of course, the ears are not always quite so empty as I describe them in this story. One can remember voices and almost hear them again a little, especially the intonation of a familiar voice at some pitch of emotion, angry, or frightened, or tender. But for me, at least, it's a few syllables thrust into the air, and they are hard to hold onto.

Many years ago a friend and I used to go to the Old Met in New York, two or three nights a week sometimes. We would stand in the lobby and wait, and sure enough some svelte couple would come dashing out at the end of Act One, to a dinner or a party perhaps, and we-- poor but audacious-- would ask them to give us their ticket stubs. We were never refused, and invariably they were good seats: first floor, down front. Tebaldi, Tucker, Warren, De los Angeles! And then Tebaldi and the others sang at the Met no more, sang no more anywhere.

Well, the truth is that I wish I could live those years again, and enter into the presence of those live performances that meant so much to me. But I do not need to suffer the absence of their voices: technology, while it has invented some horrendous things, can claim much good magic also. So I can hear Tebaldi again. I can hear Dylan Thomas telling in his wondrous voice about a long-ago Christmas day. I can hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaiming that he had seen the promised land. What if that voice had vanished irretrievably-- I think we would feel by that much less the long struggle up the mountain. As in history, as in art, so in life. Oh, what if one had no kept record of the voice of someone loved and now gone? What an extra dish of sorrow that would be.

For there is something heard in the actual voice that cannot be accrued from the printed page, though we read with care and excitement, even with a real falling-into-it passion. There is simply no "connect" as there is between listener and speaker. That, at its best, is almost touch. Nuances unfelt on the page hang in the air. So. Though I am an old-fashioned sort of person, who knows only the kind of blackberries that grow on bushes (for which my friends berate me), I can't deny my own joy and appreciation at the salvation of voices otherwise vanished into the unknowable darkness.

Therefore, this second CD. I join the world. And ponder this fantasy sometimes-- that one day technology will find a place in the dark air and bring back to us the voices of Keats, Shelley, Whitman, Emerson, Li Po, Rumi, Homer-- anyone anyone wants to hear. Who knows. . .

Listen to Mary Oliver read "Many Miles."

Mary Oliver Giveaway: Free, Signed Copies of Swan!

In honor of National Poetry Month, Beacon Press will give away five signed copies of Mary Oliver's Swan: Poems and Prose Poems. 

For details and to read a poem from the book, visit MaryOliver.Beacon.org. You can enter once a day between now and Friday, April 15, at noon EST. 

For updates on Mary Oliver's appearances, new publications, and media, Like Mary Oliver on Facebook. 

Maria Shriver Interviews Mary Oliver

Maria Shriver is guest editor of O Magazine's April Issue, a special Poetry Month edition of the magazine, which features a rare interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver. Shriver has long admired Oliver's work, and writes, "I was overjoyed when—after politely declining my invitations for six straight years—Mary finally agreed to read at my annual Women's Conference in California last fall, joining speakers like Michelle Obama and Eve Ensler." 

In the interview, Oliver talks about writing, reading, the loss of her life partner Molly Malone Cook, and finding the courage to speak about personal trauma. Here's a short excerpt from this revealing and delightful discussion:

Maria Shriver: One line of yours I often quote is, "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"* What do you think you have done with your one wild and precious life? 
Mary Oliver: I used up a lot of pencils.

Maria Shriver: [Laughs.] 
Mary Oliver: What I have done is learn to love and learn to be loved. That didn't come easy. And I learned to consider my life an amazing gift. Those are the things.

Maria Shriver: You have lived a very unique life, a life really individual and fearless. 
Mary Oliver: Well, it was never a temptation to be swayed from what I wanted to do and how I wanted to live. Even when Molly got ill, I knew what to do. They wanted to take her off to a nursing home, and I said, "Absolutely not." I took her home. That kind of thing is not easy. I used to go out at night with a flashlight and sit on a little bench right outside the house to scribble poems, because I was too busy taking care of her during the day to walk in the woods. 

* The poem referenced here is "Wild Geese," which can be found in New and Selected Poems, Volume One. 

Read the whole interview here. Read more about Mary Oliver and her work at the Mary Oliver website. You can also Like Mary Oliver on Facebook for updates on readings and news. 

(In a bit of Beacon Press trivia, Maria Shriver is the daughter of Sargent Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps and a prominent figure in When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years.)

Summer, 1964. Photo by Molly Malone Cook, from Our World (Beacon Press, 2007).

Selected Beacon Press titles by Mary Oliver 
 A complete list of her books is available on the Mary Oliver website.

Swan

“Joy is not made to be a crumb,” writes Mary Oliver, and certainly joy abounds in her new book of poetry and prose poems. Swan, her twentieth volume, shows us that, though we may be “made out of the dust of stars,” we are of the world she captures here so vividly: the acorn that hides within it an entire tree; the wings of the swan like the stretching light of the river; the frogs singing in the shallows; the mockingbird dancing in air. Swan is Oliver’s tribute to “the mortal way” of desiring and living in the world, to which the poet is renowned for having always been “totally loyal.”

Available from: 
Beacon Press 
Amazon 
Amazon Kindle 
Barnes and Noble 
NOOKbook 
Independent Bookstore

---

Evidence

Inspired by the familiar lines from William Wordsworth, “To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,” Evidence is a collection of forty-seven new poems on all of Mary Oliver’s classic themes. She writes perceptively about grief and mortality, love and nature, and the spiritual sustenance she draws from their gifts. Ever grateful for the bounty that is offered to us daily by the natural world, Oliver is attentive to the mysteries it imparts. The arresting beauty she finds in rivers and stones, willows and field corn, the mockingbird’s “embellishments” or the last hours of darkness permeates her poems. Her newest volume is imbued through and through with that power of nature to, in Oliver’s words, “excite the viewers toward sublime thought.”

Available from:
Beacon Press
Amazon
Amazon Kindle
Barnes and Noble
NOOKbook
Independent Bookstore

---

New and Selected Poems, Volume One

When New and Selected Poems, Volume One was originally published in 1992, Mary Oliver was awarded the National Book Award. In the years since its initial appearance it has become one of the best-selling volumes of poetry in the country. This collection features thirty poems published for the first time in this volume, as well as selections from the poet’s first eight books.

Available from:
Beacon Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Independent Bookstore

---

New and Selected Poems, Volume Two

New and Selected Poems, Volume Two, an anthology of forty-two new poems—an entire volume in itself—and sixty-nine poems hand-picked by Mary Oliver from six of her last eight books, is a major addition to a career in poetry that has spanned nearly five decades. Now recognized as an unparalleled poet of the natural world, Mary Oliver writes with unmatched dexterity and a profound appreciation for the divergence and convergence of all living things.

Available from:
Beacon Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Independent Bookstore

 

Swan: New Poetry from Mary Oliver

Out now: Swan: Poems and Prose Poems, the twentieth volume from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Mary Oliver. Read the title poem on the Beacon Press website.

 

Back from BEA!

Today's post is from Caitlin Meyer, a publicist here at Beacon Press, who was recently quoted in Publisher's Weekly.

On Friday I returned from New York where I had been attending 2010's BEA (BookExpo America) conference. After taking the long weekend to recuperate from all the activity, I wanted to share the experience with our Beacon Broadside readers. Last week, I, along with our Director, Helene Atwan, our Publicity Director, Pam MacColl, and our Executive Editors, Amy Caldwell and Gayatri Patnaik, came together with friends and colleagues from the book world to celebrate the past, present, and future of publishing. Here are some highlights from our four days in New York:

This year the event was held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Beacon Press was one of 1,500 exhibitors in attendance, with an estimated 22,000 people in attendance.

The conference kicked off on Tuesday with a plenary meeting for the exhibitors titled, "The Value of a Book." Everyone gathered to watch a heated discussion about the current state of publishing and how upcoming changes to the industry will affect agents, authors, and publishers alike.   

When it was over we headed straight upstairs to the exhibit hall to set up our booth.  We were promoting some of our most anticipated titles for the fall, including Swan, the twentieth poetry collection from Mary Oliver, and our very first graphic novel, an adaptation with Jamar Nicholas of Geoffrey Canada's memoir, Fist Stick Knife Gun. Our booth was well positioned near our new distributor, Random House.

Later that morning Pam and I attended the panel discussion, "Building Online Reader Communities with an Eye on ROI." The entire conference, including this panel, was being live tweeted all week. The benefit of social networking has been an ongoing conversation in the publishing world for quite some time now. This panel included a discussion about how authors, bookstores, and publishers can use these new technologies to their advantage.  

Things were in full swing by Wednesday. Everyone was busy taking meetings with agents, authors, editors, producers, and booksellers.

Across the aisle from us, new author, Vordak, was trying to lure people in with his plans to take over the world. Helene took a moment to pose for a photo with him. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but I assume they were comparing notes on world domination tactics.

Later in the afternoon, C-SPAN BookTV stopped by to talk to Pam about our  new fall list. She did an amazing job discussing our upcoming books. The producers even stopped back the next day to compliment her, (we'll be sure to share a link when the video airs).

In fact, she did such a great job that Mr. Bananagrams himself agreed to have his photo taken with her.

On Thursday we started the day out at the "Adult Book & Author Breakfast," hosted by Jon Stewart.  Stewart was a part of an author panel, along with John Grisham, Condoleezza Rice, and Mary Roach. Each of the authors gave a tease for their upcoming book and took part in a Q&A with the audience. Stewart made it clear that he was less than pleased with the direction of the audience's somewhat self-serving questions, but we didn't mind his blunt approach. After all, "The Daily Show" has been a friend to Beacon this year.

The rest of the day was spent much like Wednesday had been: taking meetings, connecting with the media and booksellers, and continuing to spread the word about Beacon Press. The view from our booth did change that day though. Vordak was gone and replaced by this guy... 

...who I believe comes from Middleworld. He was the strong and silent type, but was nice enough to pose with me. The picture is blurry because everyone was rushing around the exhibit hall to make sure they took it all in before the end of the day. I think my photographer might have gotten jostled by a passing book enthusiast.

As the day wound down I really began to appreciate everything I'd seen and done during the week. This was my first BEA and I felt very grateful for and inspired by my wonderful and knowledgeable colleagues. 

I was also honored to be a part of the thriving community of publishing professionals and book lovers. Each year we hear more and more about the fast approaching "death of print." Yet, each year Beacon Press and other publishers around the globe bring in new and exciting writers who help us to keep books alive in the marketplace. Yes, there was much discussion about ebooks and Twitter accounts. Yes, the print industry, from books to newspapers, is facing new challenges. And yes, publishing will need to continue to evolve in order to keep up with changing technologies. But one of the most valuable lessons I took away from BEA was that there are still few things that excite people as much as the prospect of writing, publishing, or reading a good book. If the community and enthusiasm of this year's attendees is any indication of our publishing future, I think we'll be ok.

Oh…and while I was in NYC, I also went to the Museum of Natural History. It can't be all work all the time!

Mary Oliver: The Power of Voice

Mary Oliver is one of America's most beloved poets. This essay is from her second audio recording, the CD Many Miles, which contains the poet reading a selection of her work, including four as-yet uncollected poems. You can learn more about the CD here, and also enter to win a poster featuring a poem from her forthcoming book, The Swan.

Listen to Mary Oliver read her poem "Many Miles."

Photo by Rachel Giese Brown

All our lives, at least seasonally, the redbird sings, and the oriole and the wren, and in April the ponds are reliably loud with the singing of frogs, and on long winter afternoons the snow-heavy wind whistles in the pines. But our own voices, the particular voices of those who are dear or important to us-- or both-- vanish utterly at the end of the season of life. And how thoroughly also are the sounds of a certain place gone when we visit it no more, though visual joys, sometimes with great clarity, may remain in the mind.

In Rajastan, in India, a man, a woman, and a child were singing outside a restaurant; I can still see them in their vibrant gypsy clothes, the man holding a stringed instrument somewhat like a guitar, but smaller and shaped differently, rather like a gourd. But I cannot hear anymore their loud brisk, joyful singing, a strange and powerful performance. How can this be, that the eyes can keep so many pictures, and the ears have no such reliable and comforting memory? It was perhaps the most exciting music I had ever heard; I think I might have followed it anywhere; but we drove on to the next town, and now in my ears there is nothing.

Of course, the ears are not always quite so empty as I describe them in this story. One can remember voices and almost hear them again a little, especially the intonation of a familiar voice at some pitch of emotion, angry, or frightened, or tender. But for me, at least, it's a few syllables thrust into the air, and they are hard to hold onto.

Many years ago a friend and I used to go to the Old Met in New York, two or three nights a week sometimes. We would stand in the lobby and wait, and sure enough some svelte couple would come dashing out at the end of Act One, to a dinner or a party perhaps, and we-- poor but audacious-- would ask them to give us their ticket stubs. We were never refused, and invariably they were good seats: first floor, down front. Tebaldi, Tucker, Warren, De los Angeles! And then Tebaldi and the others sang at the Met no more, sang no more anywhere.

Mary Oliver on Edna St. Vincent Millay

Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was described by the New York Times as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.” Her poetry collections include Swan;  Blue Iris; Why I Wake Early; Thirst; New and Selected Poems, Volume One; and New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. Her prose includes Our World, which is a collection of photographs by Molly Malone Cook accompanied by Oliver's writing.

Edna St. Vincent Millay's library at Steepletop. Photo by Molly Malone Cook from the book Our World.

Edna St. Vincent Millay died on October 19, 1950; she was 58. It was a too short, turbulent, diligent life—a life of life, a life of work. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. She was the chosen representative figure of the ’20s, beautiful, flamboyant, honorable to the spirits of love and of art, yet, in those early years, mischievous, even racy. In book after book, she wrote more deeply, more quietly, with a lyrical finery, a feminist stance, an affinity with the natural world, an understanding of the necessity in the world for kindness, for participation.

The critics, with the exception of Edmund Wilson, have mostly hashed her work, making it smaller by emphasis on the early poems. Who remembers her libretto for Deems Taylor’s opera The King’s Henchman, or the plays, or the many elegant sonnets and poems in later books such as Buck in the Snow; Huntsman, What Quarry; and the posthumous Mine the Harvest? Or the essay Fear, really an open letter to the Governor of Massachusetts on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti? That she had some bad times in a good life seems of higher interest to her biographers (so far) than the audacity of her spirit, the breadth of her work. Well, hundreds of readers—thousands of readers—young as well as old, do remember. Time will bring its balance, its more just correspondence between the poet and the work. To which she gave such unflagging effort, until the moment of her departure which was altogether too early.

A Personal Note: When I was still in high school, in 1953, I wrote to Norma Millay, the poet’s sister, asking if I might visit the poet’s home, where Norma Millay was then living. The answer was yes. So, sometimes, the emboldened young fly into their lives. I lived there, off and on, for a good number of years. I don’t know if spirits always haunt their earthly homes, but I know that sometimes they do. Her presence was everywhere.

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