There’s Something About Mary

May 1, 2008 on 7:21 pm | In Unitarian Universalism |

Oh dear, darling UU minister colleagues and lay people,

I’m working on a paper on why Unitarian Universalists love the poetry of Mary Oliver so much that she’s become “sacred scripture” to many of us (certainly her poetry is used liturgically on a frequent basis in our congregations).

I’d love to hear from you.
1. Do you love Mary Oliver’s poetry? Why?
2. Do you use it in worship? Approximately how often and in what place in the service?

Thank you!! Gracias! Merci! Tack!

13 Comments »

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  1. Yes, yes, yes, and yes!!! I loved her long before I knew what UUism was. Why? I can think of no other way to say it then as you have said it: “sacred scripture”. I have committed several of her lines–and at least a couple of her poems–to heart. I guess her words are like psalms to me, in the way that I use them in personal spiritual practice. Some of her lines I repeat like mantras…I guess she just gets it right.

    Well, here’s a couple examples…

    One of the things I have found is that I have taken her words into me, so that sometimes I find myself using her phrases as if they were common language. (”family of things” comes to mind)

    Her poem “Wild Geese” is sort of like a creed to me (and I share this in common with a minister friend of mine, who also commited the poem to heart). I wrote about my first experience with the poem here… http://uuintersections.blogspot.com/2007/10/of-ghosts-and-geese.html
    Since then, the poem has embodied my search for home, and those wild geese “over and over announcing your place in the family of things” will forever be for me an image of finding my place in the interdependent web.

    Also, I had her words from “When Death Comes” posted to my bathroom mirror for months a couple years ago, during a really transitional time in my life (right after I became a UU), as a reminder to Live Fully. I still see these words as my personal life motto: “When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms….I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.” (Rev. Jen Crow has a great sermon on Mary Oliver and her poems here http://www.rochesterunitarian.org/2005-06/20060716.html…as Jen says Oliver’s poems are full of “incantations drawing us forward to a more authentic life”)

    I should also note that the very first UU service I attended featured a Mary Oliver poem…and the very first UU small group session I attended on Prayer used her poem “Morning Poem” (”whether or not you have ever dared to be happy,/whether or not you have ever dared to pray”).

    These two initial UU experiences were the absolute confirmation for me that I was in the right place.

    Oh,and one more story…
    Recently, when my grandmother died and we gathered round her death bed to say the rosary, the prayers that she said every night. My mind wandered into what words, what prayers, would I wish to be spoken at my death bed, and the poetry of Mary Oliver came to mind. Already her words were running through my mind…

    So, sorry for the long response here! Just one of my favorite subjects to write about!

    Comment by Terri — May 1, 2008 #

  2. I love her poetry because she is able connect the soul to the world via images of nature.

    I use her poetry mostly for informal, circle worship, soulful sundown type services or nature related services. (Wendell Berry is another favorite.)

    But some of her poems are so rich and so exquisite that they work well in many contexts. My favorite is “Morning Poem” (New and Selected Poems, p 106)

    Comment by Renee — May 1, 2008 #

  3. I love her poetry because it doesn’t belittle the human condition. She writes that we are OF this world, not above it or beneath it. There is no hint of original sin.

    Like Terri, I find her phrases in my mind often.

    I am on a daily poetry email list called Panhala. Oliver’s poems are often included. While it is not specifically a UU list, it strikes me that many of the poems would be appropriate for worship. “Panhala is Hindi for “source of fresh water” (more or less). The purpose of this group is to share poems and prose that make the day a little brighter.”

    Here’s the URL if you are interested:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Panhala/

    Comment by Louise — May 2, 2008 #

  4. I use Mary Oliver a LOT. This Sunday, for example, in a service about “Ambiguous Loss,” (the smaller losses that often go unacknowledged but still cause us grief, like the death of a pet or “losing” one’s partner to Alzheimers) I am using as one reading Oliver’s poem “In Blackwater Woods” (To live in this world, you must be able to do three things… and when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.)

    I love the simplicity of her poetry; I respect the art of saying something very rich and nuanced with just a very few words. She is a MASTER at that.

    And she loves life so much. And she is so grateful. She takes great pleasure in simple things, notices things to be grateful for that most of us would miss.

    To put it simply: she knocks my socks off.

    Comment by Judy Welles — May 2, 2008 #

  5. Oh my. I think I’m the only one who prefers May Sarton! LOL!

    Comment by Tracie the Red — May 2, 2008 #

  6. Mary Oliver is OK, but not one of my favorite contemporary poets. We use her occasionally in worship, but only the bits of her poems that are found in the Singing the Living Tradition hymnal. I don’t find her especially worshipful, nor do I find her religious values consonant with what I perceive as the core of Unitarian Universalism (she strikes me as a bit of a quietist). And when you read her poems aloud, I find they don’t really sing — they’re a little flat.

    You didn’t ask, but here are some living poets whom I find fit in well with our worship services: Denise Levertov — stunningly beautiful images, lovely to read aloud, profoundly religious. Jimmy Santiago Baca — you have to pick and choose, but sections out of his longer poems can be exquisite as readings. Margaret Atwood has some great poems on death. Derek Walcott’s poems are musical to read aloud, and deeply thoughtful. Wendell Berry is pretty good when doing ecotheology in worship. I once used part of one of Donald Hall’s Red Sox poems in a worship service on baseball, because here in Massachusetts baseball is religion. I try to read some of the poetry journals, and sometimes find a good poem by a new or minor poet. And Grace Paley would have been on this list, except she died recently — I’m still grieving.

    I like all these poets better than Mary Oliver for one or more of the following reasons: more profound thought; religious values closer to our church’s; more musical when read aloud; more likely to provide a powerful worship experience. Come to think of it, with these and all the other great living poets out there, and then all the dead poets whom I love, I guess I’m unlikely to use Mary Oliver’s poetry much.

    As always, your mileage may vary….

    Comment by Dan — May 2, 2008 #

  7. All I know is that when people ask me if we read from the bible during worship services, i say “Yes, but not as often as we read mary oliver.”

    i’m also very fond of Naomi Shihab Nye.

    Comment by marcia — May 3, 2008 #

  8. I seem to be out of the UU mainstream in this and many other ways. I don’t dislike Oliver but she doesn’t speak to me and I was kind of bored at her GA lecture. I like poetry a lot and often use it in meditation, but have favorite poems more than favorite poets.

    Other ways I am a bad UU: I don’t drink coffee, I don’t think “to question is the answer”, and if I never sing “Spirit of Life” again I would be quite elated.

    Comment by KJR — May 3, 2008 #

  9. I like Mary Oliver, but I do think she is overused. Her poems are lovely, and a few of them are BAM! powerful, but not all of them are. Some are just pretty scenes of nature, sort of in the H.D. Imagist style. Lovely but not life-changing–for me. In planning worship I avoid using her poems as readings. I still quote her in sermons every so often but I really do shy away from her at this point, and try to bring in other voices.

    Comment by CFT — May 3, 2008 #

  10. I find it interesting that we shy away from repeated uses of the same poetry/poet, rather than embrace them in liturgical familiarity. I’ve found myself doing this with Mary Oliver, thinking “Oh, she’s been done in UU worship so much, let’s find something new.” Then I have to question my motives - a pointless quest for “originality”, or a genuine need for a fresh perspective?

    That said, I think “love what is mortal, and when the time comes, let it go” is a near-perfect theological statement about life in the face of death.

    Comment by bluish seminarian — May 5, 2008 #

  11. I love Mary Oliver because her poems “West Wind #2,” “Wild Geese,” and “The Journey” saved my life–literally.

    They gave me the strength and courage to do some hard things–basically to get out of a life that was killing me, and into one that is full of love and joy. Oliver will always hold a special place in my heart for that.

    If you want some other poetic resources, I would recommend Mark Jarman’s Questions for Ecclesiastes (especially the “Unholy Sonnets”). I also really like Berry, Levertov, and Nye—along with Emily Dickinson, Jack Gilbert, and e.e. cummings.

    Since my best friend is a UU, I already know you guys do a lot of Rumi… ;-)

    Cheers,
    Doxy

    Comment by Wormwood's Doxy — May 5, 2008 #

  12. I work in a UU church, but I don’t belong to any denomination. I love Mary Oliver’s poetry because of the way she ties the mundane to the spiritual. However, because she *is* so accessible, sometimes we liturgists turn to her works without thinking of other contemporary poets whose poetry shares the same traits, but whose literary style might be more dense or difficult to parse. Personally, I love a good poem to “chew on,” but that isn’t the point when selecting readings to frame a sermon or theme. I find David Whyte’s poetry intelligent, sensitive, mystical, spiritual, and sadly underused.

    Comment by Suzanne — May 7, 2008 #

  13. Ok I love Mary Oliver too. But I wouldn’t call it my gospel- just an affirmation for my soul. And I try not to use her in worship as often as I us other sacred texts, and absolutely not more than twice a year.

    Comment by Rali — May 8, 2008 #

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