Poetry Friday: Libraries, Parks, and Reflections on Mary Oliver Deep Dive
Jan at bookseedstudio is hosting today! Jan is a friend from Hollins, so it’s always fun to pop over there and say hi!
The End of Mary Oliver (for now)
That’s a terrible headline. But as some of you know I’ve been reading Mary Oliver as my 3-a-day routine for months. I’ve made my way through fourteen Mary Oliver books. I still have several left to go. I’ll put those on the back burner until later in the fall. I just know that I can’t read Mary Oliver and also complete The Sealey Challenge that I’m taking on in August. I’ll be reading the U.S. Poets Laureate.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading Mary Oliver. When I started out reading her work, it was the busy part of spring. I was doing a daily sit spot routine near my house. This summer, I’ve been exploring local parks, and it has felt like the perfect time to read her work. Of course I’ve fallen in love with her phrasing and her word choices. The poems that spoke to me the most were the ones she wrote about nature near her home. She did write about her childhood and travels abroad some, but those didn’t impact me as much as her everyday nature poems.
I have lots of favorites, but one of them is “Swimming with Otter” and I love the phrase “where peace comes in the generosity of water.”
I’ll swing back to Mary Oliver soon!
Parks and Libraries Update
This past week I was able to go to five libraries but only two parks. It’s partly because I was recovering from a minor surgery, and partly because of my schedule, and partly because of the extreme heat. And in some cases, I couldn’t find a good park to go to near a library. I’m still making good progress and hope to have visited all of the libraries and as many parks as possible before I have to return to school.
Kingstowne Library
John Marshall Library
Thomas Jefferson Library
Providence Recreation Center Trails
We have a lot of neighborhood parks, which is awesome, but that also means that sometimes there is no parking because people walk to the trails. I was looking for a trail nearby this recreation center. I parked there and took off on their trails. I ended up nowhere near the trail I was trying to find. But it was still a lovely walk in the shade on a hot day.
Tysons-Pimmit Library
Ellanor C. Lawrence Park
I had a meeting this week out near this park, so I just did the meeting, then did my park + library combo.
The bonus was that it’s close to one of the only Malaysian restaurants in my area. I went to high school in Malaysia, and I love the food. In a place where there are hundreds of Thai restaurants, there are only three Malaysian restaurants in the area (that I know of), and they are all 30-45 minutes away (more if there’s traffic). So I drove a couple more miles and had some Hainanese Chicken Rice and Roti Canai.
Centreville Regional Library
Haiku of the Week
spider tiptoes
hides on leaf’s undersides—
camera shy
Photo & Haiku © 2023 Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Photo Taken: July 5, 2023 at Dyke Marsh Nature Preserve
Haiku Written: July 25, 2023
What I’m Reading
by Mary Oliver
I’m finishing up Evidence by July 31, then I’m on to The Sealey Challenge on August 1.
What I’m Noticing
Sorry for the poor lighting. I was on my porch watching two hummingbirds fight over two feeders. I was afraid to move, so I just took pictures with my phone.
Despite the deer and the chipmunks claiming my garden for their own, I have managed to harvest a few tomatoes. It’s great considering I got almost none last year. This year, I went back to putting them in containers. They seem to do better for me there.
18 Comments
Irene Latham
Marcie, I love your tiptoeing spider! Mary Oliver definitely shines in her nature poems – what gifts she gave us! (And yes that blog post headline was a bit harsh! Ha!) So glad you were able to enjoy some Malayasian food, too..how lovely to be able to revisit your childhood in that way. xo
p.s. I notice in the Otter poem, MO ends many of her lines with “he.” I don’t like that at all…wouldn’t the poem be so much stronger with different line breaks ?? We all have our preferences…
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Yes, I don’t always agree with the way she ends a line. And some of her titles are “labels.” I was reading “Trees” today and I wonder–does she have multiple poems with the title “Trees”?
Tracey Kiff-Judson
Marcie, your post made me curious (what is that spiky spider-like creature?), reminiscent (Mary Oliver books), and hungry (mmm, those heirloom tomatoes) all at once! I am always so impressed with how much you read and with your stunning photographs.
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Thank you, Tracey. Yes, I never got a good look at the spider, so I do wonder what kind it was. It kept ducking away from me.
Laura Purdie Salas
That roti looks so delicious, Marcie! And your post is filled with so much inspiration, I don’t know where to begin. I decided to do the Sealey Challenge, too, this year. I’ve got my first 15 books in a pile–and since one of them is The Poets Laureate Anthology, that one might cover several days! I like your idea of 20 (I think) poems, at least. I probably won’t participate much in the online community, because sharing my thoughts and readings is one of the many things feeling like more commitment than I can handle these days. But I’m just looking forward to the commitment to myself to read more poetry <3 Thank you!
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Hooray for Sealey Challenge. The only posting I’ll be doing is what I read that week on my Poetry Friday post. Last year I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, and I was shocked to finish! Even if we don’t meet the original goal, it seems that we’ll at least have made a conscientious effort to read more poetry.
Jane @ Raincity Librarian
I love visiting the libraries in every place I visit! They all look and feel different, yet have a comforting familiarity about them. 🙂
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
So true! One thing I’ve noticed is how every single branch has a great selection of books and excellent seating.
Anastasia Suen
Wow! I love all of the photos and the new haiku.
We also had to move some of our plants into containers – and even that didn’t work if they could still reach the leaves – so we’re using taller planters with sloped edges so the ground squirrels can’t climb up!
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Oh sloped edges! That’s an idea. I don’t know what else to do! I tried to plant some more sunflowers and put a fence around them. I’m hoping to deter the deer until they get a little bigger.
Linda Baie
I saw a few books I’ve enjoyed and know that you must have loved getting The Poets Laureate Anthology, prep for August, right? I love reading all that you’ve done, Marcie, collecting the memories through the pictures, and then, the finale, your haiku. Ah, that ‘camera shy’ spider! Although you apologized for the light, I liked seeing that hummingbird in shadow, pretty pic! Hope your Saturday has been a good one!
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Thank you, Linda! It’s been a lovely week (and a lovely summer).
Michelle Kogan
Ah what a delicious post Marcie. And I love your picture perfect spider 🕷️ haiku, makes me smile, along with your rich collection of books of which I also recognized some, and the overview of Oliver books, thanks for all!
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Yes, I still have more Oliver to read (she was PROLIFIC!). But I’m excited to dive into poets laureate.
Heidi Mordhorst
A tour of parks and libraries! What a good plan for a summer break. I like seeing all the different names of the libraries and the books you found there, including WHISPER AND SHOUT, published long before I chose WHISPERshout as the name for my organization…but I guess I’ll have to get my hands on a copy! Sounds like Mary Oliver has seeped deep into you now–good time for a change!
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Yes, more Oliver to read–eventually. But it’s time for some other poets.
Denise Krebs
Marcie, love the library stacks in this week’s post, and the Malaysian food! Wow. We had some Malaysian friends when we lived in Bahrain, and I loved eating at their home. (That’s as close as I’ve come to Malaysia.) But you went to high school there; no doubt you would miss the food! I’m glad you got to enjoy that meal this week.
Love your camera shy spider. What a great photo.
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
I do miss the food! But if I’m close by any of the 3 Malaysian restaurants in the DC Metro, I try to pop in. It doesn’t happen very often.