American poet Mary Oliver by Vishvapani

Many British people, even those who read poetry, might not have heard of the American poet Mary Oliver, who died on Thursday aged 83. But in the US she was loaded with honours and won a wide readership for poems expressing a distinctively modern kind of spirituality.

Her most famous poem is The Summer Day, which starts with the ancient religious question, ‘Who Made the world?’ Then the poet gazes at a grasshopper that’s landed in her palm as she walks through the fields, and reflects that the answer lies in engaging with what’s before her with care and curiosity. ’I don't know exactly what a prayer is,’ she says. ‘I do know how to pay attention’...........................



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