Oasis Ministries- RTW Mary Oliver

An Addition to the 2009-2010 Program Year

Theme: Mary Oliver: Nature and Spirit
Date and Times: 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Friday, February 19, 2010
Location: Camp Swatara, Bethel, PA 19507 (northern Berks County)
www.campswatara.org
Leader: Glenn Mitchell

Thirst

Another morning

and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have.

I walk out to the pond

and all the way God has

given us such beautiful lessons.

Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell;

grant me, in your mercy,

a little more time.

Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart.

Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst,

I am slowly learning.

--Mary Oliver, Thirst

Mary Oliver’s poem “Thirst” (left) says well what her poetry has been stirring in me for over two decades—the way my thirst and my prayers are shaped by the conversation in my heart between my love for the earth and my love for God. Like nature itself, Oliver never fails to open me to the shimmering more in life.

I invite you to join me as we look to nature and listen to the poetry of Mary Oliver at a day of retreat on February 19, at Camp Swatara, Bethel, Pa. We will begin at 9:30 and conclude by 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

Options include staying an extra night before.
Please contact Betsy in the Oasis office to register: 717-737-8222 or mailto:betsykeller@oasismin.org.

We continue to offer our day retreats for $65-95 as you are able.

A fuller description of Mary’s writing and a complete bibliography are below. There are two volumes of her Selected Poetry, One and Two, that would net you the most great poems under two covers--and if you were to buy only one of the those, make it Vol. One. Another key book for our use will be Thirst, which is her book most explicitly Christian in expression. But any of her many volumes contain real gems so feel free to simply dive in. American Primitive and House of Light are two of my favorites.

Hope to see you soon. Let me know if you have any questions.

Blessings, Glenn

Rev. Glenn Mitchell

Director of Training and Program for Oasis Ministries

glenn@likeafeather.com

Mary Oliver (b. 1935) & The Printed Word

The full bibliography of Oliver’s writing is below. Much of the best of her work can be found in two volumes of selected poems. New and Selected Poems Vol. One, (Beacon Press, 1992) covers her earlier work through 1992. Her New and Selected Poems, Vol. Two, (Beacon Press, 2005) covers her work from 1994 to 2005. Post Vol. 2 her most significant book of poetry, is Thirst (2006). This book carries both her grief over the death of her long-time partner, Molly Malone Cook, in 2005, and her deeper movement into a Christian expression of her spirituality. For a beautiful and tender testimony to Molly and her work with photography by Mary, see Oliver’s 2007 book, Our World.

There are three collections of Oliver poems grouped around nature “families.” Each of these books also includes a few new poems:

Birds:                                                Owls and Other Fantasies, 2003

Flowers:                                           Blue Iris, 2004

Mammals, Insects and Reptiles: The Truro Bear and Other Adventures, 2008

Books about her approach to writing:

    A Poetry Handbook 1994

    Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse, 1998

Books that are primarily Prose, Essays, and Prose Poems

    Blue Pastures, 1995

    Winter Hours, 1998

    Long Life, 2004

Beacon Press has released a CD entitled At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver, allowing you to hear in her own voice, 42 of her poems.

A number of Mary Oliver’s poems can be found on line as well.

Bibliography

        No Voyage, and Other Poems (1963, first edition; 1965, expanded edition)

        The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems (1972)

        The Night Traveler (1978)

        Twelve Moons (1978)

        Sleeping in the Forest (1979, poetry chapbook)

        American Primitive (1983)

        Dream Work (1986)

        Provincetown (1987, limited edition with woodcuts by Barnard Taylor)

        House of Light (1990)

        New and Selected Poems (1992)

        A Poetry Handbook (1994)

        White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems (1994)

        Blue Pastures (1995)

        West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems (1997)

        Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems (1999)

        The Leaf and the Cloud (2000, prose poem)

        What Do We Know (2002)

        Owls and Other Fantasies: poems and essays (2003)

        Why I Wake Early: New Poems (2004)

        Blue Iris: Poems and Essays (2004)

        Long Life: Essays and Other Writings (2004)

        New and Selected Poems, volume two (2005)

        At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver Reads Mary Oliver (2006, audio cd)

        Thirst: Poems (2006)

        Our World (2007) with photographs by Molly Malone Cook

    Red Bird (2008)

    The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays (2008)

Awards

Honors Oliver has received include the Lannan Literary Award for poetry (1998), the National Book Award for Poetry (1992) for her collection New and Selected Poems, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1984) for her collection American Primitive, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1980), and the Shelley Memorial Award (1969/70) of the Poetry Society of America. The first and second parts of her The Leaf and the Cloud were selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 1999 and The Best American Poetry 2000, respectively.

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