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A dive into the poetic worlds of the American writer Mary Oliver, through rare recordings of the poet herself, interviews with those who knew her and writers for whom her work has been a guiding light.

In this edition of Afterwords, we explore Oliver's poetic invitations to finding redemption, devotion and love within a harsh and beautiful world. Her words sing the natural landscape - alive with awe, ecstasy, wildness - but also with a deep awareness of its capacity for heartbreak, pain and brutality.

In 'Our World', Mary Oliver's elegy for the photographer Molly Malone Cook - her partner of over four decades - Oliver wrote "Attention without feeling... is only a report. An openness 鈥� an empathy 鈥� was necessary if the attention was to matter". Using the image of Cook tenderly observing the world in the slow bloom of her photographer's darkroom, Oliver reflects on how this notion of attention wove into her writing, "M. instilled in me this deeper level of looking..."

We hear from Helene Atwan, her publisher at Beacon Press, poet and friend Lisa Starr and the writers Mary Jean Chan and Nadine Aisha Jassat

Archive recordings include excerpts from the On Being podcast ('Mary Oliver - Listening to the World' interview by Krista Tippett, 5.02.15 - hear the conversation in full at www.onbeing.org), the Lannan Foundation ('Mary Oliver in Conversation with Coleman Barks', 4.08.01), Literary Hub ('A Phonecall from Paul: A Conversation with John Waters', 18.07.19) and Beacon Press ('At Blackwater Pond', 15.04.06).

Poems feat. (Reprinted by the permission of The Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency as agent for the author.)

鈥淚n Blackwater Woods鈥�
Copyright 漏 Mary Oliver 1983

鈥淪leeping in the Forest鈥�
Copyright 漏 Mary Oliver 1978

鈥淲ild Geese鈥�
Copyright 漏 Mary Oliver 1986

鈥淭he Whistler鈥�
Copyright 漏 Mary Oliver 1999

鈥淲hen Death Comes鈥�
Copyright 漏 Mary Oliver 1992

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3

RPT - first broadcast 21st November 2021

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