Mary Oliver: A great American poet has passed back into the realm where poems come from

Poet and Pulitzer Prize winner, Mary Oliver, who grew up in Ohio, died yesterday at age 83.  Here's the first few lines from her poem "Wild Geese."

"You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles in the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

Love what it loves..."

When Rachel White, of Designs, Vines, and Wines, asked me to draw something for Black History month, just about this time last year (2017), I decided to draw memoirist, longtime Winston-Salem resident, and America's Poet Laureate, Dr. Maya Angelou.  As a poet myself, it just seemed like the obvious choice to draw.  The drawing came out well, and that drawing made the rounds and a print ended up in the collection of Maya Angelou's niece and archivist. 

One of the things that happened later, as a response to the Maya Angelou drawing, is that Rachel got a request for me to draw another poet, Mary Oliver.  It was a commission by a high school English teacher, as I recall.  I'd never heard of Ms. Oliver, so I dug into her story and searched for a good photo to work from.  There were very few photos of her, and none that really worked well with my style of drawing.  Technically, this was never one of my favorite drawings.  But I really liked her work.  I was stoked to hear that she grew up in northern Ohio, like I did.  Her poems took me right back to the countless hours I spent wandering the woods, creeks, and lake shores of Ohio as a kid.  Even more interesting, on a personal level, is that Mary grew up in Maple Heights, only a few miles from where my grandma grew up. My grandma, as a young woman, easily could have met Mary as a young girl. 

As I read several of her poems, I really liked the way Mary looked at the world, and I wound up doing the drawing.  To the best of my knowledge, the drawing above is hanging in a classroom in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I imagine the classes in that room will spend some time going over her poems Monday, while looking up at the drawing now and then.  As a longtime wordsmith, it's cool to think a drawing of mine may help draw some young people a into the world of poetry for an hour, and maybe even for a lifetime. 

For those of you reading this, you now have a brief idea who Mary Oliver was.  If you have any interest in poems at all, I advise you to take a few minutes and check out her work.  You might find a gem of an idea that really strikes you, like the last line of "Wild Geese" I quoted above, did to me. 

R.I.P. Mary Oliver.  Let the soft essence of your soul love what it loves and fly where it flies...