BOOKBROODER

“Don’t bother me
I have just
been born.”
MARY OLIVER

Mary Oliver is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. And Yes. She talks about nature. There is not much of the dubiety on my mind after having read her first book of poems in my life. I read two major award-winning woman poets for the first time this year; Louise Glück and Mary Oliver.

I can say that Mary observes in and around. She observes with clarity. She observes both piffling and salient. She is romantic and she is harsh as well. I will not use the word “recherché” for her poetic craft as it seems to me she is very explicit in her approach at least in this book. I loved all the poems in this collection. And along with Glück, this poetess gave me the dose of my poetic repose of this year. I am keen to jump over to her other books, especially the Pulitzer -prize-winning work “American Primitive”, and I will definitely be receiving that book with high expectations.

In the eyes of Maxine Kumin Oliver was “a patroller of wetlands in the same way that Thoreau was an inspector of snowstorms.” When I read this comparison, my expression went from an intent observer to a cheerful grinner (no idea if this word even exists, but I grinned) in the blink of an eye. I recalled my failed attempt to read Walden, four years back but I remember reading somewhere then, about this association of Henry David Thoreau with snowstorms. Thoreau even wanted the officials to pay him for his job of observing and writing about snowstorms, jokingly.

At the beginning of her poetic craft in this book, she declares from the vantage point of her craft. See the attitude…

“You don’t want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen
to the enormous waterfalls of the Sun”

In the ‘morning poem,’ she says,

“each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.”

In one poem she beautifully expressed the growth of trillium; how the Hillside grew white with the wild Trillium. She speaks about how the marsh hawks which are long-tailed and have yard-wide wings glide just above the Rough plush of Marshlands. And once she heard a scream,

“Something screamed
from the fringes of the swamp
It was Banyan,
the old merchant.
It was the hundred-legged
Tree, walking again”

In a poem, she writes, ‘bows to the lightening of her eyes, the pick of her beak the swale of her appetite. And at a place, she said that the sea is not a place but a fact and a mystery! She beautifully portrays the pink moccasins flower, rising in mid-May in the forest.

I found her imagery of nature very poignant and sharp. Her love and close liaison with nature were very much visible in this book, I glided over this prepossessing and panoramic depiction of nature through her verses.

I loved the book and I will finish my thought on the book with these lines,

“For years and years I struggled
just to love my life and then
the butterfly
rose, weightless, in the wind.
“don’t love your life too much”
it’s said,
and vanished into the world.”
MARY OLIVER

BUY ON AMAZON

Recently I read Gogol and out of curiosity, in a process of unearthing some important name in that satirical zone from the past greats, I got a recommendation of reading Swift. Actually, I was having an eye on the A Tale of a Tub, but this title just jumped in between and I began with this due to its short length.

So this was my first time… Jonathan Swift!

This title is again quite deceptive. This proposal was everything but modest. This should have been called ‘An inhumane proposal‘ or ‘An inexorable proposal‘ indeed. I can understand that this piece of work is a satire on a major issue of poverty and atrocity of rich or rulers of that era, yet I feel there was a huge dearth of sensitivity there on the part of the author.

Leaving aside the pathos of that idea that one should sell one’s newborn baby to the meat market, after one year of bountiful nourishment so that its flesh becomes tastier and will be consumed by the rich and will yield a good chunk of money to their poor parents. I feel the way it has been written is quite nutty.

When the author observes in the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to Barbados. He gives such a proposal to the authorities. He gives statistical data on how it will benefit the economy, empower women and overall remove poverty.

The author has made caustic remarks. His tone is very unemotional as if he has no heart at all. He talked cruelly and talked about resolving the issue in a very insensitive way. But He must get high points from the reader for the way he has written it, maintaining the art and skill required in a farce to give a message in a very blunt and intense style.

Are you a nature lover? Have this dream work in your knapsack!

A satirical essay by Jonathan Swift