Just a reminder how much can happen when you take the day off…
Read MoreImagining a Forest Bed with a Poem by Mary Oliver
When we saw this image on @UpstateDiary, we thought what a lovely thing to build into a garden, and imagined ourselves resting on it, how instantly relaxed and at ease we would feel in the fragrant green. Then this Mary Oliver poem jumped into our hands, expanding its possibilities…
Read MoreTree Benediction (Mary Oliver)
Lately Mary Oliver has been coming again into our field of vision. This perfect evocation of being among trees is a balm in this ferocious time.
Read MoreTent as Artist’s Canvas Sparks Mary Oliver
Spotted at artist Izhar Patkin’s instagram: the tent he has on his New York roof deck with an interior painted by Scooter LaForge. We can imagine hiding out in its dreamy magic… A fragment of a Mary Oliver poem comes to mind:
Read MoreThoughts on Miracles (Charlie Allenson, Walt Whitman, Mary Oliver, Cosmos)
A while back, we posted “Let’s Save Charlie’s Life”, about our friend Charlie Allenson who needed a kidney transplant to save his life, Charlie got his transplant through an anonymous donor touched by one of the messages asking for help that Charlie’s many friends and colleagues sent out via social media. It got us thinking about miracles, and we found insight from Whitman, Mary Oliver, and Charlie himself.
Read MoreWith Poetry as Balm for Dire Straits, We Are Taking Time Off (Mary Oliver, Su Tung p’o)
This week, my dearest friend will have open-heart surgery, a territory whose outcomes and demands defy prediction. So I will be taking time off from writing Improvised Life. But I will be carrying its lessons with me as I navigate waiting, hospital, ICU…
Read MoreEmerging Seeds’ Wild Dances of Joy (Hope Jahrens, Mary Oliver)
Boxlapse Films’ timelapses of seeds bursting through the soil are so wildly expressive, we found ourselves watching with a big grin on our face at the life force in action. It called to mind botanist Hope Jahren’s description of what seeds really do, and Mary Oliver on the very thing to dispel anxiety…
Read MoreCarl Jung and Mary Oliver on Touching Nature from the Inside and Outside
This morning we came across extraordinary words from Carl Jung. They describe a wholeness of experience that antidotes the very modern idea that we are each self-contained. Soon after, a Mary Oliver poem echoed it…
Read MoreHow to Dispel Worry (Mary Oliver)
Worry and overwhelm are common emotions these days. This morning, we found two simple things that shifted us out of them.
Read MoreQuarantined, Italians are Singing out of their Windows + Mary Oliver
As grim notices come in announcing closings and suspensions due to the Coronavirus, we saw THIS video from Italy and had to smile, heartened…
Read MoreVarieties of YES: A Zen View, John Cage, Mary Oliver, James Joyce and the Katz’s Deli Orgasm
Thirty + years ago, the world witnessed Meg Ryan’s perfection of a faked orgasm in Katz’s Deli, we’ve been thinking about great, transformative yeses we’ve written about or experienced.
Read MoreInstructions from Mary Oliver
Recently, we received an email from Susan Dworski, artist, writer and frequent contributor to Improvised Life. It’s subject line read, simply “Instructions”
Read MoreBeing Matter of Fact about Failure and Other Lessons from Mary Oliver
Of the many tributes we’ve read about poet Mary Oliver’s passing, the most moving was Summer Brennan’s short remembrance about what her teacher taught her…
Read MoreMary Oliver’s Instructions for Living
In this often dark times, I am grateful for the potent little instructions for living Mary Oliver gave us.
Read MoreA Quieting Alternative to Meditation (Walt Cotten, Franz Kafka, Mary Oliver)
There is a very old, very simple practice that can do much to restore balance in our ever-on times. Franz Kafka described it perfectly over 100 years ago; Mary Oliver did recently…
Read MoreMay You Go Easy, To Be Filled with Light, and To Shine (Mary Oliver)
This poem by Mary Oliver expresses our wishes for you this wild season:
Read MoreFearsome Poetry of an Owl in Flight (Mary Oliver)
A convergence of two owl poems: one, wordless…one by Mary Oliver, when we opened Blue Horses…
Read MorePoem for the 4th of July (Mary Oliver)
On July 4, 2010, poet Mary Oliver found a whale bone on the beach and wrote a poem about it, full of ‘looking, and touching, and loving’: a fine way to celebrate independence.
Read MorePoem for the Summer Solstice (Mary Oliver)
During the Summer Solstice, the sun will bathe us in sunlight for longer than any other day of the year. That deserves a poem, one of Mary Oliver’s most famous, The Summer Day.
Read MoreOpened at Random: ‘Devotions’ by Mary Oliver
This morning, we opened Mary Oliver’s Devotions to this…
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