Book Review—A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

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All night my heart makes its way however it can over the rough ground of uncertainties, but only until night meets and then is overwhelmed by morning, the light deepening, the wind easing and just waiting, as I too wait (and when have I ever been disappointed?) for redbird to sing. - A Thousand Mornings

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A Thousand Mornings is a poetry book that I recently picked up from the library. I first heard of it when I was scrolling through Goodreads and saw the cover, and even though it's considered a sin by many readers, the cover was what really drew me in. It was misty and mysterious. It seemed like it was daring you to pick it up and it was a black and white cover, which are my favorite!

I didn't know what the quality of the writing was like until I started looking at reviews and saw it was rated fairly well. I'd been looking for good poetry books to read for a while and was excited when this was recommended for me, so I ordered it from the library.

When I first got it, I was surprised by the size of the book. It was so skinny! I expected it to be small, but not that small. As I started reading it though, the size was kind of a relief. I'd been reading a lot of fantasy novels, so a short and to-the-point poetry book was a refreshing read.

The poems in the book focused a lot on the themes of simplicity and the little things in life we often overlook. I loved how it described nature and music. The author did a really good job of putting herself and her life experiences into her book and by the time I finished reading, I felt like I knew her. She wrote a lot about her dog, Percy, and made the smallest, most insignificant things seem important and lively. She focused on the little moments in life that so many of us miss, or if we do catch them, underestimate the importance and impact they have on us.

I love when poetry is about nature, joy, and life because I feel like in a lot of poetry, writers often move towards darker themes and storylines, myself included. Perhaps we do this because negative emotions are very strong and can stick with readers longer than positive emotions. Another reason could be that we're experiencing negative emotions in our lives and so we put them into our work to try and rid ourselves of them or relate them to other peoples' feelings so we don't feel so alone and different.

Don't get me wrong, I love poetry with dark themes. I love poem that can make me cry because sometimes you just need to cry, not because anything is severely wrong, but just to remind yourself that you can and that those emotions are still there.

This book has poems in it that are dark and dreary and want to make you cry, but it has a lot more of the ones that make you smile and want to shout with excitement. This book makes you feel empowered and like you are in control of how you look at situations and circumstances, because you are. You are in control of how you interpret and look at your life and what you've been given, and you have the choice to be grateful or to be miserable. This book did a great job of reminding me of that.

A lot of the poems have that glass-half-empty-or-half-full perspective. Unlike a lot of the poetry out there today though, this author chose to look at the situations through the lens of the glass-half-full. She put hope into these poems and that's the kind of poetry we need more of. More hope. Less negativity and feelings of dread. We shouldn't ignore those feelings. We shouldn't force them down and if you went to write about them, great! I'll probably end up reading it!

What I'm saying is we need more poetry that makes us feel like where we are now isn't the worst place in the world. We need poetry that makes us cry with gratitude and thankfulness. We need words that have that glass-half-full enthusiasm. Words that make us pause and go, "man am I lucky," or "oh I remember that great feeling and how amazing that moment was." More poems that focus on the little things and bring them into the spotlight to remind us just how significant they are. Poems that bring the joyful memories, ones we haven't thought about in years, back to mind and the ones that perhaps made life magical and seemed to push us forward, maybe the only thing that pushed us forward.

I want to see more poetry books that bring tears of joy and not tears of sorrow. More books like A Thousand Mornings that hit you hard when you least expect them to because they wake you up! And make you realize so many things that you've missed. Just like the sunrise blinding you through your window at dawn. "Open your eyes!" It screams, or you will miss so much. There may be a thousand mornings ahead, but this one could be the morning that really wakes you up to all of the little moments you've forgotten.

Thank you for reading this post! I totally recommend reading A Thousand Mornings. Poetry is so subjective and everyone pulls different things out of the same piece. These were just my thoughts on the collection and what I got from it. I hope it made you think or gave you some inspiration to write your own words. I would love for you to join the blog, so don't forget to subscribe by going to the home page of this website. If you want to check out my other blog posts, they're also on the home page!

It's been a pleasure writing for you and until next time—stay weird and stay writing. - Lexi