AT BLACKWATER POND

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver reads 42 of her poems from various collections. Oliver writes as a naturalist, and her deceptively simple meditations on peonies and goldfinches always reward with deeper meaning. Listening to these poems is to be awash in their beautiful language and imagery. Oliver reads clearly and with a steady tone that gives the poems a repetitive sameness they don’t suffer on the page. Then again, as Oliver writes in her introduction, “They are neither oracular nor authoritative nor, I hope, are they read either in shyness or a too sufficient certainty.” What is certain is that the opportunity to hear a poet read her own work is a gift. Lovely packaging makes this collection a keepsake. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 06]