Saved by the Beauty of the World

"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things."

- Mary Oliver


Transcript: http://www.onbeing.org/program/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world/transcript/7271
Listening to http://onbeing.org/program/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world/7267

Ms. Tippett: Right. And then you talk about growing up in a sad, depressed place, a difficult place. In another — you don't belabor this, I mean, and in other places — there's a place you talk about you were one of many thousands who've had insufficient childhoods.

Ms. Oliver: Yes.

Ms. Tippett: But that you spent a lot of your time walking around the woods.

Ms. Oliver: Yes.

Ms. Tippett: In Ohio.

Ms. Oliver: I did. And I think it saved my life. I — to this day, I don't care for the enclosure of buildings.

Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm.

Ms. Oliver: It was a very bad childhood for everybody, every member of the household, not just myself I think. And I escaped it, barely. With years of trouble.

Ms. Tippett: Yeah.

Ms. Oliver: But I did find the entire world in looking for something. But I got saved by poetry. And I got saved by the beauty of the world.