Mary Oliver is a GENIUS!

I really enjoyed the poems by Mary Oliver. Her diction was brilliant and simply drew me in. The things that she writes about are deep and profound, but you must think in order to fully grasp what she is saying.

The first assigned reading was her poem Messenger. The first thing that really stuck out to me was the title. As I kept reading throughout the poem the meaning of the title became even more clear and intriguing to me. In the poem she asks a series of questions and then stops herself and says, "let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished." I loved this part because I am definitely guilty of asking too many questions instead of just remembering what my purpose is...instead of just sitting back and watching God do his thing. The earth that we live in testifies to God goodness and creativity. If we were to sit back and just observe all of the wonderful things around us...our lives would be so different.

The second Poem by Mary was Walking Home from Oak-Head. I liked this poem because I have never seen snow and it made it sound just magical =)

The third, and my personal favorite, was Six Recognitions of the Lord. This poem is my favorite because it is written along the lines of the way I think. The quote that stole the whole show for me was the very first stanza which says, "I know a lot of fancy words. I tear them from my heart and my tongue. Then I pray." This is so incredibly profound. Too often, Christians get caught up in the the whole religiousity of Christianity. We say prayers with big words so that we appear to be more righteous or holy...big words are not bad...but it is not our fancy words that gain the audience of God, it is the attitude of our heart. When someone first gets saved, their prayers are very simple, and according to some people they may even be improper...but I think that when the Lord hears those prayers, he smiles because he sees the genuineness of that persons heart. As we progress in our spiritual walks, we tend to lose that sensitivity and "realness" that we once had. This quotation convicted me and inspired me to go back to the simple, genuine relationship I once had with Christ.