A review by dukegregory
American Primitive: Poems by Mary Oliver

3.5

A lot more vicious and viscous than I assumed Mary Oliver would be (solely based on the popular imagination surrounding why her work resonates so). Grief and violence are brought about viscerally via the natural image, but what I think Mary Oliver brings to the table is a series of images that maintain motion and presence. Flora and fauna are rarely static. The natural is often both a given and unknowable, and that dichotomy of the obvious and unclear presents a breeding ground of the erotic, the spiritual, and the distinctly corporeal. A lot of these poems were just okay for me, but there were a number that made me stop and reread. It's a winsome collection.