Mary Oliver's "Storage"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is by Mary Jane Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019), an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. It is characterised by a sincere wonderment at the impact of natural imagery, conveyed in unadorned language. In 2007, she was declared to be the country's best-selling poet.

—Bia via Wikipedia

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
0:04.1	I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Tuesday, July 18th,
0:08.8	2003.
0:11.2	Today's poem is by Mary Oliver, and it's called Storage.
0:17.0	I'll read it once, offer a few comments, then read it one more time.
0:25.6	Storage.
0:28.6	When I moved from one house to another, there were many things I had no room for.
0:34.6	What does one do?
0:36.6	I rented a storage space and filled it. Years passed.
0:40.3	Occasionally I went there and looked in, but nothing happened, not a single twinge of the heart.
0:46.3	As I grew older, the things I cared about grew fewer, but were more important.
0:52.3	So one day I undid the lock and called the trash man.
0:57.0	He took everything.
0:59.2	I felt like the little donkey when his burden is finally lifted.
1:03.2	Things.
1:04.5	Burn them.
1:05.4	Burn them.
1:06.5	Make a beautiful fire.
1:08.6	More room in your heart for love, for the trees, for the birds who own nothing, the reason they can fly.
1:20.6	Mary Oliver was born 1935, and she died not too long ago in 2019, and was one of the most decorated and best-selling American poets of the late 20th and early 21st century.
1:42.3	Mary Oliver is best known for her emphasis on simple language
1:50.7	and natural themes and imagery in her poetry.
	...

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