Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows both chronologically and logically Mary Oliver's , which won her the Pulitzer Prize for the finest book of poetry published in 1983 by an American poet. The depth and diversity of perceptual awareness-so steadfast and radiant in American Primitive-continue in Dream Work. She has turned her attention in these poems to the solitary and difficult labours of the spirit-to accepting the truth about one's personal world, and to valuing the triumphs while transcending the failures of human relationships.
Whether by way of inheritance-as in her poem about the Holocaust-or through a painful glimpse into the present-as in "Acid," a poem about an injured boy begging in the streets of Indonesia-the events and tendencies of history take on a new importance here. More deeply than in her previous volumes, the sensibility behind these poems has merged with the world. Mary Oliver's willingness to be joyful continues, deepened by self-awareness, by experience, and by choice.
***
[Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing / kept flickering with the tide / and looking around DOGFISH]***
(Atlantic Monthly Press, 4 November 2014, first published 1986, 98 pages, ebook, borrowed from @AmazonKindle via #PrimeReading)
***
***
This stunning collection of poems has left me dazed and quite a bit lost for words. I've read the poet before, but only once so didn't really have an opinion of her work. Dream Work has left me gasping, stunned, breathless and desperate to read more by the poet. That can only be a good thing. I can't think of a single criticism, not one, that alone is quite an achievement. Oliver knows how to write poems, boy does she ever. Every poem in this collection shone. I borrowed this but think I'll buy it in paperback so I can read it over and over until my little heart's content. Dream Work rings true on every level; the imagery is spot on, vivid, haunting at times. The poems seem personal yet there's a distance at times as well. I cannot phrase this collection enough.
