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Short Cuts

Mary Oliver

Short Cuts

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8788 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver

Josie Long heads out alone into nature to present short documentaries and adventures in sound inspired by the poet Mary Oliver. From a meditation on the seasons amid the changing climate, to an exploration of wanting with Laura Barton.

Wild and Precious Featuring Laura Barton

Mary Oliver - Listening to the World (edited extract) Interview by Krista Tippett This interview was originally produced for The On Being Project onbeing.org

To Fail as a Witness Featuring Anne Fosburg Produced by Ariana Martinez Special thanks to Anne Fosburg and collaborator Mitchell Johnson for the early correspondence that motivated this work.

Production Team: Andrea Rangecroft and Alia Cassam Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2019.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:05.0

Hello! I'm in France. I am stood next to a genuine mountain river in Orlish Leban, which is in the Pyrenees.

0:18.0

And the water is clear and freezing cold

0:21.7

and the day is totally fine and beautiful

0:24.6

today's episode

0:26.5

is all about the poet Mary Oliver

0:29.0

who died earlier this year

0:30.9

and the first voice you're going to hear is hers

0:33.9

it's an extract from

0:36.4

a wonderful interview she did with the On Being podcast.

0:43.7

We all wonder who's God, what's going to happen when we die, all that stuff. And I don't think it's,

0:53.9

it's never nothing.

0:57.4

I'm very fond of Lucretius.

0:59.9

Lucretia says, well, just everything's a little energy.

1:02.2

You go back and hear these little bits of energy and pretty soon you're something else.

1:06.9

Now that's a continuance.

1:09.6

It's not the one we think of when we're talking about the golden streets and the angels with how many wings and whatever.

1:18.6

But it's something quite wonderful.

1:20.6

Everything's mortal.

1:24.6

It dies, but its parts don't die. It's parts become something else.

1:28.3

We know that when we bury a dog in the garden,

1:31.3

and with a rose bush on top of it.

...

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