American poet Mary Oliver passed away into the Great Unknown. While it is sad and we grieve her death, she leaves behind a plethora of lessons for all of us. Progressive Christians have found in Mary Oliver a teacher, a guide, and a coach. She has gifted us with her words, but also with her spirit of curiosity, her vulnerability, and her steadfast insistence on the goodness of the created world.
Although her poems are vast and each one bears its own gifts to its hearers, we want to highlight a few of her poems and the import they have on our lives and our spirituality.