Once again, this question (no idea if Henry is a relative, but I’d say not). In the days I mixed in “academic” poetry circles, I found myself, as I’ve blogged before, astonished at the sneery attitude to MO. And as I’ve also said before, this from people who had never actually read her. Or who had read her only from a couple of lines from some of her most loved poems. Who never “got” her.

For the record, I love Mary Oliver. I loved her enough to travel across the Atlantic twenty years ago for the express purpose of hearing her read. She is grossly underestimated. She has never drawn the critical attention she deserves.

Thanks to the ever-wonderful Dynamic Ecology to linking me to the question.