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    Dream Work
    Dream Work
    Dream Work
    Ebook101 pages40 minutes

    Dream Work

    By Mary Oliver

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    An “astonishing” book of poetry from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Primitive and “one of our very best poets” (Stephen Dobyns, The New York Times Book Review).
     
    Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows Mary Oliver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry volume American Primitive. The deep perceptual awareness on display in that collection is all the more radiant and steadfast here. With this new collection, Oliver has turned her attention to the solitary and difficult labors of the spirit–to accepting the truth about one’s personal world, and to valuing the triumphs while transcending the fail­ures of human relationships.
     
    Oliver brings grace and empathy to the painful legacies of history, whether by way of inheritance–as in her poem about the Holocaust–-or through a glimpse into the realities of present–as in her poem about an injured boy begging in the streets of Indonesia. And yet, Oliver’s willingness to find light, humanity, and joy continues, deepened by self-awareness, by experience, and by choice.

    Editor's Note

    In memoriam…

    Mary Oliver’s simple, lovely poems made her one of her generation’s most admired poets. Perpetually approachable and deeply resonant, her poems continue to comfort readers following her passing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateNov 4, 2014
    ISBN9780802192417
    Dream Work
    Author

    Mary Oliver

    Mary Oliver (1935–2019), one of the most popular and widely honored poets in the U.S., was the author of more than thirty books of poetry and prose. Over the course of her long and illustrious career, she received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for American Primitive in 1984. Oliver 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. She lived most of her life in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for Dream Work

    4.5/5

    165 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Beautiful collection of poem that dip into the Oliver personal association with the world around her and with her writing process. She often uses nature to relation to the spiritual or the emotional, drawing out from a deer walking by or sunflowers in a field a deeper meaning about being alive. And then again, sometimes a hawk is just a hawk and a primrose is just a primrose, and its enough to take in their beauty for just a little while.
    • 5/5
      One of the very few poetry books I have read from cover to cover. Each one a treasure. Thank you, Madame Oliver.
    • 5/5
      I started this book before the news that Mary Oliver had passed away, so reading these poems have been bittersweet.
    • 4/5
      I am brand new to reading Mary Oliver. This was a lovely place to start.
    • 4/5
      I like Mary Oliver's poetry but for some reason, I found that many of the poems in this volume, especially at the beginning, didn't speak to me. On the whole, I liked the second part of the book best; these poems were more nature-centered. That being said, poetry for me is very sensitive to my mood so it may be that I would love these poems at some different time.
    • 5/5
      excellent, highly recommend, 10/10, read this book if you want to be amazed delighted frightened et cetera
    • 4/5
      This was a great, small collection of poetry that won the Pulitzer back in the day. Oliver manages to convey much, and variate her style and meaning, depending on the context and the larger idea of her individual poems. There is much to like here, from the longings to the images and even towards the appeals for greater sanctity. This is not a collection to be missed- it deserves acclaim.4.25 stars.
    • 4/5
      Everyone could benefit from reading a little more poetry. Not every poem landed with me, but I'd be reading along and--BAM--two lines would just hit me and make me think about how I interact with the world and myself. Worth it.
    • 5/5
      School taught me how to read and understand poetry, but it didn't teach me how to enjoy poetry. So when I picked up this book that a friend recommended, it was more out of curiosity than any expectation of enjoyment. To my utter surprise, I found these poems a pleasure to read. They're more accessible than many of the famous poems I've tried reading over the years. You don't get bogged down trying to decipher obscure words and convoluted sentence structure. Instead, you’re free to explore the meaning of the poems, which are thought provoking, intimate, and beautifully vivid. Some poems invite deeper analysis; others just float through my mind and allow me to find my own meaning. If you think you don't like poetry, Dream Work may change your mind. For me, this book was a revelation. I can't wait to discover more amazing poets like Mary Oliver.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Dream Work - Mary Oliver

    I

    DOGFISH

    Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing

    kept flickering in with the tide

    and looking around.

    Black as a fisherman’s boot,

    with a white belly.

    If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile

    under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,

    which was rough

    as a thousand sharpened nails.

    And you know

    what a smile means,

    don’t you?

    I wanted

    the past to go away, I wanted

    to leave it, like another country; I wanted

    my life to close, and open

    like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song

    where it falls

    down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;

    I wanted

    to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,

    whoever I was, I was

    alive

    for a little while.

    It was evening, and no longer summer.

    Three small fish, I don’t know what they were,

    huddled in the highest ripples

    as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body

    one gesture, one black sleeve

    that could fit easily around

    the bodies of three small fish.

    Also I wanted

    to be able to love. And we all know

    how that one goes,

    don’t we?

    Slowly

    the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

    You don’t want to hear the story

    of my life, and anyway

    I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

    to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

    And anyway it’s the same old story —

    a few people just trying,

    one way or another,

    to survive.

    Mostly, I want to be kind.

    And nobody, of course, is kind,

    or mean,

    for a simple reason.

    And nobody gets out of it, having to

    swim through the fires to stay in

    this world.

    And look! look! look! I think those little fish

    better wake up and dash themselves away

    from the hopeless future that is

    bulging toward them.

    And probably,

    if they don’t waste time

    looking for an easier world,

    they can do it.

    MORNING

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