A poem is about being ready to
change your mind. Mary Oliver knew that.
Today, Mary Oliver died. And whole moraines
pale blue with blossoms swept the hillinside.
She was one who knew boundaries, and what
honored her own name. Deviating into sensibility,
she was one who made honey mesquite with words-
so hard scanning the darkness, like a small, quiet
rain cloud hovering over yonder. Or a panther rattling
in the thick candelabra forest of sweetheart extinctions.
American poet Mary Oliver, who won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, passed away aged 83 on 17 January.
George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, the Angle at St. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Havana Times, the South China Morning Post, the Buffalo News, and more.