Red Bird: Poems

All winter, the red bird arrived, igniting the landscape like nothing else could. Thats how Mary Oliver opens her twelfth poetry collection, and the image of that blazing bird lingers, reappearing in surprising shapes until, in a postscript, he reveals his purpose: For truly the body needs / a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work, / the soul has need of a body, / and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable / beauty of heaven / where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes, / and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart. This volume contains sixty-one new poemsmore than ever before in a single Oliver collectionand ventures into fresh territory with a cycle of eleven interconnected love poems, a remarkable accomplishment. As always, her work brims with sharp-eyed observations of nature, deep gratitude for its gifts, for the many people she has cherished over her seventy years, and for her spirited defiance.

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