I have the feeling that a lot of poets writing now are - they sort of tap dance through it.

Next quotes

• Mary Oliver:

  I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem.

• Mary Oliver:

  Sometimes breaking the rules is extending the rules.

• Mary Oliver:

  Writers must... take care of the sensibility that houses the possibility of poems.

• Mary Oliver:

  I grew up in a confused house: too much unwanted attention or none at all.

• Mary Oliver:

  I'd rather write about polar bears than people.

• Mary Oliver:

  I would rather write poems than prose, any day, any place. Yet each has its own force.

• Mary Oliver:

  Instead of taking the reader by the hand and running him down the hill, I want to lead him into a h

• Mary Oliver:

  Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began as did all the fine arts, within the original wilde

• Mary Oliver:

  Words have not only a definition... but also the felt quality of their own kind of sound.

• Mary Oliver:

  You can fool a lot of yourself but you can't fool the soul.