📚 West Wind,
by Mary Oliver
Poetry / Nature
1997
80 pages
It counts for #Nonficnov 2025

I have been reading all of Mary Oliver’s collections in chronological order.

I love this collection by Mary Oliver, as once again here in West Wind, she highlights a deep connection with nature and life.

Her poems are simple but powerful, helping you find peace and calm.
They allude to the changing seasons, life, and death, and they remind you to slow down and appreciate the small, quiet moments around you.

Oliver’s words often make you feel like you are really part of the natural world, noticing plants, animals, and the landscape in a very close way.
The poems encourage you to stop worrying about little things and instead focus on what truly matters—living fully and loving deeply.
A great invitation to enjoy the beauty around you and to think about how precious life is, inspiring you to live with more awareness and love.

Something that is unique – I have already read many collections of poems by Mary Oliver, and this is the first time I see it, is the way she structures several poems in this collection.
Here is an example:

I liked it a lot: it gives a great flexibility and movement to the poem, as you are invited to read it both going down and sideways at the same time.

I’d like to share other passages I really enjoyed.
The meadowlark is one of my favorite birds, so I loved this:

The meadowlark is a spirit, and an epiphany, if I so desire it.

In this same prose poem entitled Three Songs, she has powerful passages about writing and language:

Language is, in other words, not necessary, but voluntary. If it were necessary, it would have stayed simple; it would not agitate our hearts with ever-present loveliness and ever-cresting ambiguity; it would not dream, on its long white bones, of turning into song.

And:

MY VERDICT:
A gentle invitation to slow down, connect deeply with nature, and find peace in life’s quiet moments.

What do you think?
Who’s your favorite poet?