Thirst

Praise

To read Thirst, is to feel gratititude for the simple fact of being alive. This is not surprising, as it is the effect [Oliver’s] best work has produced in readers for the past 43 years. —Angela O’Donnell, America Magazine

“Mary Oliver moves by instinct, faith, and determination. She is among our finest poets, and still growing.” —Alicia Ostriker, The Nation

“It has always seemed, across her [many] books of poetry, . . . that Mary Oliver might leave us at any minute. Even a 1984 Pulitzer Prize couldn’t pin her to the ground. She’d change quietly into a heron or a bear and fly or walk on forever.” —Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

“Mary Oliver. In a region that has produced most of the nation’s poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observations of the natural world. Her Wild Geese has become so popular it now graces posters in dorm rooms across the land. But don’t hold that against her. Read almost anything in New and Selected Poems. She teaches us the profound act of paying attention—a living wonder that makes it possible to appreciate all the others.”—Renée Loth, Boston Globe