Today is Mary Oliver’s birthday. Many of her poems grace the pages of our poetry books – Teaching with Heart, Leading from Within, and Teaching with Fire.

Mary Oliver is one of the poets most often chosen by teachers to speak for them. In trying to find something to say about why that is, I found her own words say it best:

I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything – other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world’s otherness is antidote to confusion – that standing within this otherness – the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books – can re-dignify the worst-stung heart.

I have read many of her poems, but somehow I missed reading her book: Upstream: Selected Essays. Tomorrow I’m going to the library…

And as this month goes on, I’ll return to Mary Oliver’s poems and the teacher’s reflections in our books. They all are well worth spending time with – and I think they’re fitting to use to begin the school year.  A time of that speaks to both “the beauty and the mystery of the world” and “the worst-stung heart.”

This photo was on Brainpickings, I think it’s breathtaking. That is how I want to grow old. (I haven’t haven’t found the attribution yet, but once I do, I’ll add it in here.)