Please join us as Janet Krauss leads a discussion of a selection of poems by Mary Oliver. A readings packet will be emailed in advance of the program.

No charge for the program. Advance registration required. Register online in order to receive the Zoom session invitation link and readings packet. Please email Michael Bellacosa at mbellacosa@wiltonlibrary.org with any questions.

Mary Oliver expanded her love of nature in her poems to include us, so we also become “married to amazement. “ We feast with awe on her loving images of birds, animals and flowers. However, she never shrank from the “hard and terrible truth that we live in.” She was born in 1935 and died in 2019. She taught at Bennington until 2001 where she held the Chair for Distinguished Teaching. At her death, the nation mourned her, as did many people throughout the world. She was born and raised in Maple Hills Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. When trouble brewed at home, she would take to the woods nearby and build huts of sticks and grass. Her refuge in the woods surely led to her love of the forest which found its way in her poems. She and Molly Malone Cooke, her lifetime companion, lived in Provincetown. The ocean and beach joined Mary’s locale of concentration. As she wrote about the consoling power of nature, she  did not lose sight of the predatory aspect of nature as well. Mary Oliver is still standing “under the dark trees, [the deer] still walking toward her.].”

Janet Krauss, who has two books of poetry published, “Borrowed Scenery,” Yuganta Press, and “Through the Trees of Autumn,” Spartina Press, has recently retired from teaching English at Fairfield University. Her mission is to help and guide Bridgeport’s  young children through her teaching creative writing, leading book clubs and reading to and engaging a kindergarten class. As a poet, she co-directs the poetry program of the Black Rock Art Guild. Several of her poems have been published in Ameythst Review.