Blue Horses by Mary Oliver

⭐⭐⭐

3.5 stars

This poetry collection didn't resonate with me as much as I had hoped it would. Mary Oliver is famous for her writing about nature and with a love of nature myself, I thought this would help me to understand Oliver and what she was writing about. This didn't happen for me.

However, I did really enjoy this collection even if the poems didn't personally connect with me. She has a way with words as most poets do which is wonderful and she does write about nature in a beautiful way.

“What's magical, sometimes, has deeper roots
than reason.”

I enjoyed the poem "First Yoga Lesson". As a person who attends yoga myself, this poem made me laugh and I really understood the sentiment. I also enjoyed "Crazy Little Love Song" which had much more rhythm to it and the metaphors were beautiful. "The Oak Tree Loves Patience" was a poem that I think did fulfil my criteria of a nature poem that connected me to mother earth in a beautiful way. 

I think what didn't connect with me was the way that sometimes the poems seemed to be too explicit and state exactly what the theme or metaphor was which shouldn't be necessary and I prefer when I am able to infer the meanings. It was almost as though some poems were just trying too hard to fill their purpose or be funny or explain her love of nature by being very literal with her use of words. 

“I would like people to remember of me, how
inexhaustible was her mindfulness.”

I am looking forward to picking up more of Mary Oliver's work because she resonates with people so much so I am curious about whether there is another collection of poetry which will resonate more with me.