Imagine your ship is sinking.  You only have a few moments to take action.  You can see an island just a short distance away, but it’ll be years until you are rescued.  Who would you want with you on that raft?  What supplies? And in my case, which books?  Books are up there with food, water, shelter.

Dream Work by Mary Oliver would be safely wrapped in a plastic case and bungee-corded to the raft right next to the fishing gear and the knives.

The rhythms of her poems recenter me.  She paints beautiful scenes that draw out thoughts tamped down by day to day life.  Picking a set of colors feels impossible.  Her work is full of nature imagery and moves from wide, open grand scale colors to a single shade.

I couldn’t begin to review her work other than to say it is awe inspiring.  Read it.

The best part of preparing to test-dye for a poet is rereading the work.  If you aren’t familiar with Mary Oliver, here are some links to get you started:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/mary-oliver
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/mary-oliver#about