Mary Oliver, Prize-Winning Poet of the Natural World, Dies at 83 - The New York Times

To live in this world



you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it



against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it

go,

to let it go.

  

Mary Oliver

In Blackwater Woods

Mary Oliver, Prize-Winning Poet of the Natural World, Dies at 83 - The New York Times: With its plain language and minute attention to flora and fauna, her uplifting verse was widely popular and her readings drew throngs. But critics were divided.