themarginalian.org · 14 hours ago

Mary Oliver on the Measure of a Life Well Lived and How to Magnify Your Aliveness – the Marginalian

Having survived cancer, Mary Oliver reflects on what it means to truly belong to this world we never asked to enter. In a rare interview with Krista Tippett, the beloved poet shares her poem "The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac," urging readers to "get started immediately" on the work of belonging - admiring, weeping, blessing the very feet and eyes and tongue that let us experience this life. "Do you need a little darkness to get you going?" she asks, invoking Keats, who thought he had a lifetime but didn't, yet never stopped creating. Speaking from what she calls "the fortunate platform of many years, none of which, I think, I ever wasted," Oliver offers not comfort but a knife-sharp reminder: we have only this one chance to be utterly besotted with the world.