"You do not have to be good," said Mary Oliver
She won the Pulitzer. She spent forty years loving a woman named Molly. She wrote more poems about birds than almost anything else. Hannah + Cleo celebrate Pride Month with Mary Oliver. A quiet queer icon, nature's poet, and the writer who convinced a generation that paying attention is a radical act.
32:10 Mary Oliver conversation starts
Music by fknsyd
Please listen to this [https://open.spotify.com/episode/4vpOCjCYer5BcP1TpxZ82v?si=fd28202a2b35465c]
Sources
Primary Sources:
* Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems, Volume One. Beacon Press, 1992.
* Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. Beacon Press, 2005.
* Oliver, Mary. Why I Wake Early. Beacon Press, 2004.
* Oliver, Mary. Blue Horses. Penguin Press, 2014.
* Oliver, Mary. Upstream: Selected Essays. Penguin Press, 2016.
* Oliver, Mary. Our World (photographs by Molly Malone Cook). Beacon Press, 2007.
* Oliver, Mary. Felicity: Poems. Penguin Press, 2015. (Recommended acquisition for love story section)
Academic:
* Cardenas, Elijah. "'A Poem Should Always Have Birds in It': Birds in Mary Oliver's Poetry." The Macksey Journal, Vol. 3, Article 64, Johns Hopkins University, 2022.
* Keegan, Bridget. "The wisdom of the owls: gender, nature and spirituality in the poetry of Mary Oliver." Journal of Religion and Society, Supplement Series, Vol. 5, 2009.
* Burton-Christie, Douglas. "Nature, Spirit, and Imagination in the Poetry of Mary Oliver." CrossCurrents, Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring 1996.
* Murphy, Patrick D. "Pollywogs and Polylogues: Material Spirituality in the Writings of Mary Oliver." ANQ, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2020.
* Davis, Todd. "The Earth as God's Body: Incarnation as Communion in the Poetry of Mary Oliver." Christianity & Literature, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2009.
* Ullyatt, Gisela. "'The Only Chance to Love This World': Buddhist Mindfulness in Mary Oliver's Poetry." Journal of Literary Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2011.
* Bonds, D.S. "The Language of Nature in the Poetry of Mary Oliver." Women's Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1992.
Biographical / Journalism:
* "Mary Oliver: Nature Poet." New Jersey Conservation Foundation. njconservation.org [http://njconservation.org], April 2019.
* "Mary Oliver, Acclaimed Lesbian Poet, Dies at 83." The Advocate, January 18, 2019.
* "Mary Oliver, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Lesbian Poet, Is Dead at 83." Autostraddle, January 2019.
* McDonald, Lexi. "Re-reading Mary Oliver as an Adult Lesbian: A Review of Felicity." Lesbrary, November 2025.
* "Felicity by Mary Oliver." Lambda Literary Review, April 2016.
* Thibodeau, Amy. "Big-Hearted Poems: A Review of Felicity." Medium, December 2015.
* "Mary Oliver on Love and Its Necessary Wildness." The Marginalian, October 2015.
* "Mary Oliver's World with Molly Malone Cook." Music and Musings, December 2020.
* Library of Congress Manuscript Division: "Mary Oliver Papers Newly Available." blogs.loc.gov [http://blogs.loc.gov], June 2024.
* "Mary Oliver: 10 Quotes from the Pulitzer-Winning Lesbian Poet." PinkNews, June 2019.
* "On the Overlooked Eroticism of Mary Oliver." Literary Hub, March 2019.
* "Epitaph to a Photographer." The Gay & Lesbian Review, 2008.
* Poetry Foundation biography: poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver [http://poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver]
* Academy of American Poets biography: poets.org/poet/mary-oliver [http://poets.org/poet/mary-oliver]
* Library of Congress exhibit: "Mary Oliver: Poet of the Natural World," 2025.
Documentary:
* Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. PBS American Masters, Season 40, Episode 5. Premiere: August 25, 2026. pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/mary-oliver-documentary/37967/ [http://pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/mary-oliver-documentary/37967/]
