#1: Mary Olivers, “Song for Autumn” (Copy)

It's important for poets to do as much reading as they do writing, and I've done a pretty bad job of it. This is Read with me - an infrequent poetry column where I'll talk about a poem that I like. For fall, I picked Mary Oliver's "Song for Autumn".

Oliver, aside from being a Pulitzer Prize winner, spent much of her time observing the nature of Provincetown, and many of her poems are about that. She was also an avid fan of dogs - I smiled at her personification of the wind "[wagging] its many tails". She has a whole book of poems about dogs called "Dog Songs", which is wonderful.

In this poem, Oliver embraces fall. There have been many poems about the bleakness of fall and the foreboding nature of the transition to winter. Oliver looks for the longer shadows of autumn and the facets of nature that come out during this time. I agree with her! If we go into fall dreading winter, or grieving the end of summer, I think we forget to love the season as it is. The earth welcomes fall easily, why shouldn't we?

Poem source here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=42420