Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays Paperback – April 1, 2006

A lovely book by a favorite author. Mary Oliver’s poems are very approachable. Her nature poems are a joy to read and inspire you to look around and open your eyes to the beauty and truth of the natural world.

Another compilation of poems and essays, including a handful of new ones, in this case all about birds. Oliver is simply amazing. She makes subjects you may not care about feel meaningful and inspiring and filled with, for lack of a better word from my atheist brain, grace. While all of the essays are short and powerful, I especially liked the one about caring for a crippled gull she found on the beach for three months one winter. She called him Bird: “He was, of course, a piece of the sky. His eyes said so. This is not fact, this is the other part of knowing something, when there is no proof, but neither is there any way toward disbelief. Imagine lifting the lid from a jar and finding it filled not with darkness but with light. Bird was like that. Startling, elegant, alive.” Of course, then he dies and rips your heart out. And here’s an excerpt from a poem flipped to at random, called “Catbird”: “Since I see him every morning, I have rewarded myself the pleasure of thinking that he knows me./ Yet never once has he answered my nod./ He seems, in fact, to find in me a kind of humor, I am so vast, uncertain and strange./ I am the one who comes and goes, and who knows why./ Will I ever understand him?/ Certainly he will never understand me, or the world I come from./ For he will never sing for the kingdom of dollars./ For he will never grow pockets in his gray wings.” Grade: A

She is quoted by so many writers so was curious. Yes, I am enjoying the poems, reading them slowly and not all at once. And the drawing of feathers, beautiful!! I’m sure I will be re-reading them.

Oh, the joys of Mary Oliver’s Owls and Other Fantasies. Eavesdropping on “Goldfinches” arguing in a puddle—the beauty of “Swan” and the cloud of its wings—the sadness of “Herons in Winter in the Frozen Marsh.” The poet sees “ruckus of the cattails” in stubbled desolation and the harshness of life in the “blunt, dark finish” in the marsh. The bold “Hawk,” “alert as an admiral.” There, in this mesmerizing collection, are the “Kookaburras” with their eyes of “soft-eyed dogs.” Ms. Oliver’s story of “Bird” made me cry, and then, there was “Backyard”—just like my own winter backyard, “without direction management supervision. The birds loved it.”Owl and Other Fantasies is clearly my favorite Mary Oliver collection and, now, one of my favorite poetry books—one to return to again and again. It’s a book of sorrow, song, and grandeur. So full!

Sometimes life is better when you read Mary Oliver talking about birds. A lovely and quite short book, and very pleasant.

These delicate, evocative poems and gentle essays really speak to me. I’m so glad to find this poet. Looking forward to exploring her work further.

Bought one for me and one for a friend. As a bird lover, I was happy to find "Wild Geese" as the first poem as it is one of my all-time favorites. Enjoyed her prose also, especially the one about the seagull. Highly recommend; will be buying more copies for gift-giving.

The author uses observations of various bird species interacting with the natural world as a jumping-off spot to examine various aspects of our own inner lives. Her voice is quiet but strong, her observations vital and reaffirming.I bought this soon after a friend told me her favorite poet was Mary Oliver. Now I understand why.