"Poetry is a life-cherishing push. And it requires a vision-a trust, to use a vintage fashioned term. Yes, indeed. For poems aren't words, after all, but fires for the frosty, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as breads in the pouches of the starving. Yes, indeed. "
Oliver was born in 1935. She went to both Ohio Talk about University or college and Vassar University, but never completed a qualification. She served as a live-in partner for quite some time to the ageing sister of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. During this time period she satisfied photographer Molly Malone Cook, with whom she lived for more than forty years, until Cook's fatality in 2005 from lung tumor. Oliver has triumphed in many awards for her poetry, like the Pulitzer Reward for Poetry in 1984 for the quantity North american Primitive and the Country wide Book Award for New and Selected Poems Vol. I. (Beacon Press)
The natural world is the focal point of Oliver's poetry. Through astute observation and attention (which she likens to prayer) she writes of the human condition as indicated in dynamics. She creates of wild birds and lakes, streams, animals, flowers, blowing wind and storms. Throughout the poems one feels the stillness, humor and grandeur of the outdoors, but is aimed also to take into account life because of it. "There is approximately Mary Oliver's poetry a deep and miraculous composure-the words are hers, the pleasure ours. " (Homer)
Such Singing in the Wild Branches is a poem written in 2003 and it is within the volume Owls and also other Fantasies. (pp. 8-9)
It was spring
and finally I heard him
among the first leaves-
then I saw him clutching the limb
in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new yr.
First I stood still
and thought of nothing.
Then I used to be filled up with gladness-
and that's when it just happened,
when I appeared to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree-
and I started out to understand
what the parrot was expressing,
and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a natural white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward
like rain, increasing,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell precisely what it was that was singing-
it was the thrush for certain, but it seemed
not an individual thrush, but himself, and everything his brothers,
and also the trees and shrubs around them,
as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds
in the flawlessly blue sky-all, all of them
were singing.
And, of course, yes, so it seemed
so was I.
Such gentle and solemn and perfect music doesn't last
for lots of moments.
It's one particular magical places smart people
like to share with you.
One of the things they say about any of it, that's true,
is that, once you have been there,
you're there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring and coil, is it day?
Are there trees near you,
and will your own spirit need comforting?
Quick, then-open the entranceway and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.
The title of this poem seems a poem in itself. The usage of what 'Such Singing' allows the reader know it is something special and unusual that is experienced. The imagery of wild branches and dreamed other-worldly performing produces a remarkably vivid mental picture before the poem is even started. The poem is written as if Oliver is speaking privately to the reader-she is often the wanderer/observer in her poems. She imparts a feeling of breathlessness and enthusiasm in what she actually is telling. Through the whole reading it feels as though she, the speaker, is someone older and wiser, wanting to convince the younger reader to focus on life happening all around. The wording is so simple, immediate and clean that the presenter will not come off as condescending, but caring.
The poem commences with brief snippets of the entire sentence, creating the image of the jerky hopping of little parrots in the encompassing trees, tiny legs 'clutching the limb' not of an tree, but an 'island of color'. This creates a mental image of an oasis; a location for revival and refreshment.
Next comes the 'attention' that Oliver detects very essential to feel complete. (as also shown in The Real Prayers Are Not the Words, however the Attention from New and Selected Poems Vol. II)
First I stood still and thought of nothing.
There is a feel of hush and silence. She then explains a mental metamorphoses of becoming one with her surroundings-a merging of her soul with all around her. There is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment --- satori-this seems to be what Oliver is experiencing-a flash of sudden consciousness (a step on the path to nirvana). She becomes the birdsong, the flesh and blood of the creature and sap of the trees. The way she identifies it is thus:
and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a natural white moment
I am reminded of Chinese language calligraphy. What themselves are visual. The single expression 'halted' creates pressure on the word and a break in the stream, turning the printed phrase into the very action it identifies. The mysticism is furthered by what 'a clean white moment', which feels as though a display of intense wintry/heat, or awakening. Oliver persists explaining her oneness with throughout her, with the birds and trees, up to the sky and the clouds. It ends with a soft sigh of alliteration:
Such delicate and solemn and perfect music doesn't last
for lots of moments.
She instructs us that wise people have always had knowledge of this unity with nature-to think of little or nothing, to listen and allow soul be filled by the magic of the world. Become a part of the planet earth, not independent from the earth. Once obtained and came to the realization, you have the ability for the bond permanently. The poem ends with bright optimism and exhorts the reader:
Quick, then-open the entranceway and take flight on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.
It appears the windowpane of opportunity may close at any time, if the reader makes haste he might also experience a 'comforting of the soul' and a display of enlightenment. He has and then open his center and listen closely.
