In a world where young people die too soon with a bullet in the head, in which this occurs not just once but countless of times, what could there horses possibly do except be beautiful and themselves?

The gift of Oliver's poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable. These poems cry out for repeat visits, for underlining, for thinking about and going back again and again. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. Miami HeraldOliver's poems are thoroughly convincing - as genuine, moving and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring. Sign up to the Little, Brown newsletter for news of upcoming publications, competitions and updates from our authors.This was the first poem in Devotions that really got to me, in part because I had a copy of Marc's Blue Horses, made by my uncle, hanging in my room as a child. I love how the first two lines are almost like a frame-narrative, a gateway into the poem where you have to accept that as the viewer you can step into a painting and engage with it, relate to it, learn from it. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed.

Oliver's books on the craft of poetry, A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, are used widely in writing programs. I’ll sip, and sometimes gulp, these poems along with her previous ones, and I’ll trust that she continues to take her long walks with her notebook and pen in her pocket so that soon I’ll have more to savor. I adore the strong colours, the sinuous shape of the horses, the way they are both separate and somehow seem to meld together. Whether considering a bird’s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees or the paintings of Franz Marc, Mary Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.

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