Mary Oliver

“I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything – other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world’s otherness is antidote to confusion – that standing within this otherness – the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books – can re-dignify the worst-stung heart.” - Mary Oliver

Earth Month is celebrated throughout April, with Earth Day being on the 22nd. There are a lot of queer conservationists both past and present that I could have written about for this month. In fact, I had a lot of trouble picking one! With my background as an ecologist, I thought it would be careless of me not to use Earth Month to highlight a queer naturalist, conservationist, biologist, botanist, mycologist…. Instead, I chose a poet.

Mary Oliver was born in Ohio in 1935. She herself has stated that she had a “difficult childhood” and that her family was dysfunctional. To escape her tumultuous homelife, she would retreat to the woods. She began writing poetry at age 14. Oliver’s poetry, like much of the natural world, is rooted in stillness and the “in between” places. Oliver studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College but did not receive a degree at either college. Instead, she worked as a private secretary, and published her first collection of poems No Voyage, and Other Poems when she was 28 years old.

Mary Malone Cook was a photographer, beginning her career with the US Army. Cook photographed many famous people including artists, authors, poets, and even first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. At the time, few people considered photography to be an art form. Cook and Oliver met in 1959 while Oliver was living and working on the estate of a poet with whom Cook was friends. Oliver recalled (referring in her writing to Molly as simply M) “I took one look and fell, hook and tumble. M took one look at me, and put on her dark glasses, along with an obvious dose of reserve. She denied this to her dying day, but it was true.” They would move together to Massachusetts in the 1960’s where Oliver would continue writing and Cook would eventually open a photography studio that would close due to lack of patronage – remember that few people thought of photography as art at this point. She would then open a book shop (as an aside, she hired the then-unknown American filmmaker John Waters as a clerk) until her health began to fail. She worked as a literary agent for Oliver, as well as a few other authors. Mary Oliver and Molly Malone Cook stayed together for over 40 years until Cook’s passing in 2005.

Although Mary Oliver was foremost a poet and never received a degree in the natural sciences, she is considered by many – myself included – to be a prominent American naturalist. Anyone who studies, observes, or engages with the natural world is a naturalist; some people are just more specialized in the scientific aspects. Exploration and appreciation of nature is just as (if not more) important than the scientific study of nature.  Instead of trying to sum up the importance of enjoying nature, I’ll end this article with a poem.

“Invitation” by Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.