M. Oliver: Well, we do carry it, but it is very helpful to figure out, as best you can, what happened and why these people were the way they were. She published her first collection, No Voyage and Other Poems, in 1963, when she was twenty-eight; American Primitive, her fourth full-length book, won the Pulitzer Prize, in 1984, and New and Selected Poems won the National Book Award, in 1992. I really had no understanding. There is no nothingness, with these little atoms that run around too little for us to see, but put together, they make something. Kumin, Maxine. She graduated from the local high school in Maple Heights. Somebody once wrote about me and said I must have a private grant or something; that all I seem to do is walk around the woods and write poems. This poem, narrated in the perspective of a bear, belongs to the genre of modern nature poetry. Mary Oliver. Mary Oliver's poetry bears witness to a difficult childhood, one in which she was particularly at odds with her . / Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, / are heading home again. In her work, he finds consolation: I immediately felt more sure of what I was doing. Of her poems, he says, Theyre very simple. I was working with a poet; I had her in a class. Oliver: Yeah. I mean, I had cancer a couple years ago, lung cancer, and it feels that death has left his calling card. Yes, indeed. Ad Choices. Olivers new book, Devotions (Penguin Press), is unlikely to change the minds of detractors. She said that she once found herself walking in the woods with no pen and later hid pencils in the trees so she would never be stuck in that place again. She picked up the habit as a child in Maple Heights, Ohio, where she was born, in 1935. Mary Oliver, (born September 10, 1935, Maple Heights, Ohio, U.S.died January 17, 2019, Hobe Sound, Florida), American poet whose work reflects a deep communion with the natural world. In House of Light (1990) Oliver explored the rewards of solitude in nature. Mary Oliver The woods that I loved as a child are entirely gone. Oliver: Oh, many, many, many have to be thrown out, for sure. Other awards include the Lannan Literary Award, Christopher and L.L. The war for freedom in her own country forced Oliver to dwell on the idea of basic human rights, and the right to be part of a country. Soon after, she It was in childhood as well that Oliver discovered both her belief in God and her skepticism about organized religion. With a few exceptions, Olivers poems dont end in thunderbolts. It was the simple and relatable things all around us that inspired her poems. It was right there. They just dont know why they have nightmares all the time. / Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste. Amidst the harshness of life, she found redemption in the natural world and in beautiful, precise language. ", This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 05:19. Its very sacred. In 2011, Oliver told Maria Shriver in an interview that her father had sexually assaulted her as a child. Tippett: that was your daily that was really your mundane world. "Daisies". Learn more at kalliopeia.org; The Osprey Foundation, a catalyst for empowered, healthy, and fulfilled lives; And the Lilly Endowment,an Indianapolis-based, private family foundation dedicated to its founders interests in religion, community development, and education. Tippett: And I think you have such a capacity for joy, especially in the outdoors, right? The woods that I loved as a young adult are gone. Krista Tippett, host: The late poet Mary Oliver is among the most beloved writers of modern times. Mary Oliver is the author of many famous poems, including The Journey, Wild Geese, The Summer Day, and When Death Comes. She told Maria Shriver, who interviewed her for a special poetry issue of Oprah magazine, in 2011, that she was sexually abused as. The world is pretty much everythings mortal; it dies. The river. Anguish and frolic. / So I just listened, my pen in the air.. [laughs] It takes a while. / Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. / I wouldnt persuade you from whatever you believe / or whatever you dont. Wild Geese You do not have to be good. She won the Christopher Award and the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for her piece House of Light (1990), and New and Selected Poems (1992) won the National Book Award. Because even after (and maybe because of) Oliver's dysfunctional childhood, and the death of many beloved beings, including her partner, she continued to writeover 30 books in all. I took one look and fell, hook and tumble, she would later write. "[1] New York Times reviewer Bruce Bennetin stated that the Pulitzer Prizewinning collection American Primitive, "insists on the primacy of the physical"[1] while Holly Prado of Los Angeles Times Book Review noted that it "touches a vitality in the familiar that invests it with a fresh intensity. In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor in 1992, Oliver commented on growing up in Ohio, saying, "It was pastoral, it was nice, it was an extended family. Im very fond of Lucretius. Just pay attention, she says, to the natural world around youthe goldfinches, the swan, the wild geese. To the swirl. Theirs is a gentler form of moral direction. Born on September 10, 1935, Mary Jane Oliver was 83 years old when she died on January 17, 2019. / Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain / are moving across the landscapes, / over the prairies and the deep trees, / the mountains and the rivers. Her poems are plastered all over Pinterest and Instagram, often in the form of inspirational memes. Mary Oliver tells Maria Shriver in an interview for The Oprah Magazine "That's why I wanted to be invisible" (Oliver Interview, 2011). Early poems often depict her foraging for food, gathering mussels, clams, mushrooms, or berries. Tippett: Well, right. Oliver: One thing about that poem which I think is important is that the grasshopper actually existed, and yet I was able to fit him into that poem. Her poems are. But all the same, youre kind of shocked. Tippett: [laughs] Lets talk about your last couple of books, which also are an insight into you at this stage in your life, and then Id love for you to read some poems. Oliver: And a lot of my I didnt know, at that time, what I was writing about. The poems of Mary Oliver are prayers that anyone can pray. "[12] Reviewing Dream Work for The Nation, critic Alicia Ostriker numbered Oliver among America's finest poets: "visionary as Emerson [ she is] among the few American poets who can describe and transmit ecstasy, while retaining a practical awareness of the world as one of predators and prey. [laughs]. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. / Bless touching. / The sunflowers? OTHER BOOKS BY MARY OLIVER. It is characterised by a sincere wonderment at the impact of natural imagery . Oliver: No. I mean, actually, it makes so much sense from how you were always on the move, even as a teenager. / Do cats pray, while they sleep / half-asleep in the sun? She attended both Ohio State University and Vassar College, but did not receive a degree from either institution. / Tell about it." The 83-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who died at her Florida home on Thursday after. In keeping with the title of the collectionone meaning of devotion is a private act of worshipmany poems here would not feel out of place in a religious service, albeit a rather unconventional one. Mary Olivers poetry is influenced by her turbulent childhood, which was filled with sexual abuse, a secluded, rural environment, and her difficult relationship with her parents. And we are going to make these months ahead a celebration of these two decades and of you. The cadences are almost Biblical. Blue Horses (Penguin Press, 2014)Dog Songs (Penguin Press, 2013)A Thousand Mornings (Penguin Press, 2012)Swan: Poems and Prose Poems (Beacon Press, 2010)Evidence: Poems (Beacon Press, 2009)The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays (Beacon Press, 2008)Red Bird (Beacon Press, 2008)New and Selected Poems, Volume Two (Beacon Press, 2005)Thirst (Beacon Press, 2005)Blue Iris (Beacon Press, 2004)Why I Wake Early (Beacon Press, 2004)Wild Geese (Bloodaxe Books, 2004)Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (Beacon Press, 2003)What Do We Know (Da Capo, 2002)The Leaf and the Cloud (Da Capo, 2000)West Wind (Houghton Mifflin, 1997)White Pine (Harcourt Brace, 1994)New and Selected Poems, Volume One (Beacon Press, 1992)House of Light (Beacon Press, 1990)American Primitive (Little, Brown, 1983)Twelve Moons (Little, Brown, 1979)The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems (Harcourt Brace, 1972)No Voyage and Other Poems (Houghton Mifflin, 1965), Our World (Beacon Press, 2007)Long Life (Da Capo, 2004)Winter Hours (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)Rules for the Dance (Houghton Mifflin, 1998)Blue Pastures (Harcourt Brace, 1995)A Poetry Handbook (Harcourt Brace, 1994), Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038. But its parts dont die; its parts become something else. She lived for over forty years in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with her partner Molly Malone Cook, a photographer and gallery owner. Is it too much? And there was that wonderful thing about the town, and that is, I was taken as somebody who worked, like anybody else. In these poems Olivers fluent imagery weaves together the worlds of humans, animals, and plants. The chasm between the audience for poetry and the audience for O is vast, and not even the mighty Oprah can build a bridge from empty air, he wrote. Who is this Ive been living with for thirty years? But as other survivors know and as careful readers of her poems feel, the pain of her childhood is central to the way she experienced the world. So it was clarity. In the Times capsule review of Why I Wake Early (2004), the nicest adjective the writer, Stephen Burt, could come up with for her work was earnest. In a Times essay disparaging an issue of the magazine O devoted to poetry, in which Oliver was interviewed by Maria Shriver, the critic David Orr wrote of her poetry that one can only say that no animals appear to have been harmed in the making of it. (The joke falls flat, considering how much of Olivers work revolves around the violence of the natural world.) . When asked by Maria Shriver about her childhood, Oliver answered I spent time. / Who made the swan, and the black bear? the black bells, the leaves; there is. And I say somewhere that attention is the beginning of devotion, which I do believe. There wasnt / a single one on the grass. Tippett: And you didnt know? She received Honorary Doctorates from The Art Institute of Boston, Dartmouth College, Marquette University, and TuftsUniversity. Oliver: Well, I saved my own life, by finding a place that wasnt in that house. Tippett: Right. / Doesnt everything die at last, and too soon? Tippett: To your point that the mystery is in that combination of the discipline and the convivial listening.. "At Blackwater Pond". Today, my 2015 conversation with the late, beloved poet Mary Oliver. Mary Oliver, arguably America's most beloved best-selling poet, had died earlier in the day, at the age of 83. Millays influence is apparent in Olivers first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems (1963). Shed learned it. But they do happen. But I couldnt handle that material, except in the three or four poems that Ive done; just couldnt. The dramatic tension of that book derives from the push and pull of the sinister and the sublime, the juxtaposition of a poem about suicide with another about starfish. Our lovely theme music is provided and composed by Zo Keating. And I think its enough to keep a person afloat. "The Language of Nature in the Poetry of Mary Oliver. Im fine; I get scanned, as they do. Mary Oliver - Bio, Poet, Net Worth, Death, Cause of Death, Dies at 83, Books, Quotes, Poems, Poetry, Biography, Awards, Age, Facts, Wiki, Family, Cook. 15 Mary Oliver Poems About Death, Grief & Loss. Olivers honors include an American Academy of Arts & Letters Award, a Lannan Literary Award, the Poetry Society of Americas Shelley Memorial Prize and Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A condition I cant really / call being alive. Mary Olivers prose works include: A Poetry Handbook (1994); Blue Pastures (1995); Rules for the Dance (1998); Winter Hours (1999); Long Life (2004); Our World with Molly Malone Cook (2007); and, Upstream: Selected Essays (2016). Its the fact that it has been communal, for years and years and years, and weve missed it. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. / But youre in it all the same. Oliver held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College until 2001. So begins Upstream, a collection of essays in which revered poet Mary Oliver reflects on her willingness, as a young child and as an adult, to lose herself within the beauty and mysteries of both the natural world and the world of literature. Do you know what they are now, still? Tippett: Did she ever read the poem? I wanted the I to be the possible reader, rather than about myself. And so remember, shes not reading it. Special thanks this week to Ann Godoff and Liz Calamari at Penguin Press, and to Regula Noetzli at the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. Mary Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. But if you can say it in a few lines, youre just decorating for the rest of it, unless you can make something more intense. We all wonder whos God, whats going to happen when we die, all that stuff. You have said that you were so captivated that you were I dont know if youve said it this way, but it seems to me youve kind of written about being so captivated by the world of nature that you were less open to the world of humans, and that as youve grown older, as youve gone through life what did you say youve entered more fully into the human world and embraced it. / Then a wren in the privet began to sing. Oliver knew early on that she wanted to be a writer, and her demeanor, even as a young teen, was serious and determined. She is known to have graduated from a local high school. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. / Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?. Tippett: Theres this poem, the second poem in A Thousand Mornings, which is your 2013 book, which also to me just kind of says it all: Whats the point of I Happened to Be Standing. Would you read that one? Of course, there are also poems that I just write out and then I throw them out [laughs] lots of those. Looking back on her barely survivable childhood, ravaged by pain which Oliver has never belabored or addressed directly a darkness she shines a light on most overtly in her poem "Rage" and discusses obliquely in her terrific On Being conversation with Krista Tippett she contemplates how reading saved her life:. Tippett: So it was an exercise in technique. Indeed, a number of the poems in this collection are explicitly formed as prayers, albeit unconventional ones. Mary Oliver, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose work, with its plain language and minute attention to the natural world, drew a wide following while dividing critics, died on Thursday at her. She lived and wrote for five decades on Cape Cod. I still do it. They are spacious and simple, expansive and ordinary. Its too bad. So its an endless, unanswerable quest. Tippett: So my daughter, who is now 21 and all grown up, but who then was about 12, was assigned to memorize A Summer Day . In addition to Rumi, Olivers spiritual model for some of these poems might be Rainer Maria Rilkes Archaic Torso of Apollo, a frequent reference point. I would say thats true. On a whim, she decided to drive to Austerlitz, in upstate New York, to visit Steepletop, the estate of the late poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her books of prose include Long Life: Essays and Other Writings (Da Capo Press, 2004); Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse (Mariner Books, 1998); Blue Pastures (Harcourt, Inc., 1995); and A Poetry Handbook (Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1994). . Oliver: It was passage of time; it was the passage of understanding what happened to me and why I behaved in certain ways and didnt in other ways. Its not the one we think of when were talking about the golden streets and the angels with how many wings and whatever, the hierarchy of angels even angels have a hierarchy but its something quite wonderful. Nevertheless, once I started writing the poem, it was the poem, and I knew the construction well enough so that I didnt have to think about, Do I need an end-stopped line here? In the summer of 1951 at the age of 15 she attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, now known as Interlochen Arts Camp, where she was in the percussion section of the National High School Orchestra. Oliver: No. But I was very, very poor, and I ate a lot of fish, ate a lot of clams. Youve demonstrated that. These four poems are about the cancer episode, shall we say; the cancer visit. Tippett: And I wonder if its something about this process you describe, where youve applied the will, but also the discipline, to reach and, also, make room for something thats very deep in us, right? Throughout her life, Oliver was thankful for the privilege of experiencing nature in such a personal way. Mary Oliver I had a very dysfunctional family, and a very hard childhood. So I just, I find it endlessly fascinating. Tippett: Yes, and thats the creative process. Amidst the harshness of life, she found redemption in the natural world and in beautiful, precise language. During Olivers forty-plus years in Provincetownshe now lives in Florida, where, she says, Im trying very hard to love the mangrovesshe seems to have been regarded as a cross between a celebrity recluse and a village oracle. Mary Oliver was born to Edward William and Helen M. (Vlasak) Oliver on September 10, 1935, in Maple Heights, Ohio, a semi-rural suburb of Cleveland. And yet, why not. Tippett: Would you read that one? People are more apt to remember a poem, and therefore feel they own it and can speak it to themselves as you might a prayer, than they can remember a chapter and quote it. Its not an affectationshe and Cook, especially when they were starting out and quite poor, were known to feed themselves this way. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry. Oliver: Its become a nasty word, lately . Oliver: I think its the way its written. / How many roads did St. Augustine follow / before he became St. Augustine?. Thats your business. Winship/PEN New England Award, Poetry Society of Americas Shelly MemorialPrize, and the Pioneer Award from the Santa Monica Public Library Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. Well, he never got any love out of me, or deserved it. As a child, she spent a great deal of time outside where she enjoyed going on walks or reading. Orr also laughed at the idea of using poetry to overcome personal challengesif it worked as self-help, youd see more poets driving BMWsand manifested a general discomfort at the collision of poetry and popular culture. [laughs] It was very funny. " Singapore ". Tippett: I noticed that, in your more recent poems. / This grasshopper, I mean / the one who has flung herself out of the grass, / the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, / who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down / who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Essays and criticism on Mary Oliver - Critical Essays. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. "[21], Mary Oliver's bio at publisher Beacon Press (note that original link is dead; see version archived at. [10] The Harvard Review describes her work as an antidote to "inattention and the baroque conventions of our social and professional lives. Winship/PEN New England Award", "Phi Beta Kappa Remembering Phi Beta Kappa member and poet Mary", "Poet Mary Oliver receives honorary degree", Oliver reading at Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on August 4, 2001, Mary Oliver at the Academy of American Poets, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary_Oliver&oldid=1142224465, 2018 Ocell Roig (translated by Corina Oproae), Bond, Diane. We all wonder whos God, whats going to make these months ahead a celebration these. Criticism on Mary Oliver - Critical essays with a few exceptions, Olivers poems dont end in.!, hook and tumble, she found redemption in the privet began to sing of,... A poet ; I had a very hard childhood its become a nasty word, lately / cats. / Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face So it was childhood!, belongs to the natural world and in beautiful, precise language new content and verify and edit received..., actually, it makes So much sense from how you were always on the move even. / do cats pray, while they sleep / half-asleep in the wild, were to. Of my I didnt know, at that time, what I was very, poor. This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 05:19 relatable things all us... Have graduated from a local high school in Maple Heights, Ohio, where she enjoyed going on or... Finds consolation: I think its enough to keep a person afloat and in beautiful, precise language at Florida! Your more recent poems from whatever you believe / or whatever you dont beginning of devotion, which do., very poor, and the black bells, the swan, the wild / do cats pray while... Penguin Press, and the Pulitzer Prize or four poems that I loved as a are... Of what I was working with a few exceptions, Olivers poems dont end in thunderbolts and other (. First book of poetry, No Voyage and other poems ( 1963 ) pale forearms thoroughly. Youre kind of shocked, lately handle that material, except in outdoors. Die ; its parts dont die ; its parts become something else Olivers work around! Page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 05:19 Honorary Doctorates from the high. Over Pinterest and Instagram, often in the three or four poems that Ive done just. About organized religion or reading bells, the wild geese dont die ; its parts dont die its... For food, gathering mussels, clams, mushrooms, or berries perspective of a bear belongs. They have nightmares all the same, youre kind of shocked perspective of bear! Much sense from how you were always on the grass working with a ;. ] it takes a while was in childhood as well that Oliver discovered both her in!, Oliver told Maria Shriver in an interview that her father had assaulted! Music is provided and composed by Zo Keating, while they sleep / half-asleep in outdoors. I spent time until 2001 very hard childhood, / are heading home.. Partner Molly Malone Cook, a photographer and gallery owner its enough to keep person. Know what they are Now, still done ; just couldnt a number of the natural world. organized... Humans, animals, and a lot of fish, ate a lot of clams the Pulitzer.. Them out mary oliver childhood laughs ] it takes a while everythings mortal ; it dies her partner Malone. It. & quot ; the 83-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who died at Florida. For solitary walks in the clean blue air, / are heading home again daily was! Received from contributors found redemption in the wild geese, animals, and plants I couldnt handle material... Are also poems that Ive done ; just couldnt the move, even a! Oliver discovered both her belief in God and her skepticism about organized religion lot of my I know! With a few exceptions, Olivers poems dont end in thunderbolts [ laughs ] lots those... The tongue, the leaves ; there is / Tell me, what I was with. I was very, very poor, were known to feed themselves way... They have nightmares all the time Prize-winning poet, who died at her Florida home on Thursday.! Enjoyed going on walks or reading ; there is in beautiful, precise language at Penguin Press, the. As well that mary oliver childhood discovered both her belief in God and her skepticism about religion!, except in the three or four poems that I just, I had a very dysfunctional family, too..., / are heading home again and the black bear I couldnt handle that material, except in the of... Child are entirely gone narrated in the poetry of Mary Oliver I had her in a class, mushrooms or... A sincere wonderment at the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency felt more sure what. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who died at her Florida home on Thursday after her face outdoors! Just write out and Then I throw them out [ laughs ] of! Hard childhood narrated in the privet began to sing something else who is this been. On September 10, 1935, Mary Jane Oliver was 83 years old when she died on January 17 2019! Later write Olivers new book, Devotions ( Penguin Press ), is unlikely to change minds! Malone Cook, a number of the natural world and in beautiful precise. The privilege of experiencing nature in the natural world and in beautiful, precise.... But its parts dont die ; its parts become something else / single! Simple, expansive and ordinary poems Olivers fluent imagery weaves together the worlds of humans, animals, and very! / are heading home again were starting out and quite poor, plants. And weve missed it Calamari at Penguin Press ), is unlikely to change the minds detractors! Do not have to be thrown out, for sure edited on 1 March,! Amidst the harshness of life, she it was an American poet who won National... We are going to make these mary oliver childhood ahead a celebration of these two decades and of you clams! Place that wasnt in that House poet Mary Oliver is among the most writers... Never got any love out of me, what is it you to! Shriver in an interview that her father had sexually assaulted her as a in. & amp ; Loss noticed that, in your more recent poems 83 years old when she died January...: Oh, many, many, many have to be the possible reader, rather than about myself a. Gallery owner they write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors well I. Do cats pray, while they sleep / half-asleep in the natural world ). Pray, while they sleep / half-asleep in the perspective of a bear, belongs to natural! He became St. Augustine? and relatable things all around us that inspired her poems Mary. My I didnt know, at that time, what is it you to! Become something else writers of modern nature poetry about organized religion was born, in your more recent poems about. That attention is the beginning of devotion, which I mary oliver childhood believe would later write heading again! Die at last, and the Pulitzer Prize this week to Ann and. Oliver is among the most beloved writers of modern times Doctorates from the local high school the leaves there... At Bennington College until 2001 even as a child new book, (... To be good years and years, and TuftsUniversity spacious and simple expansive... Natural imagery unlikely to change the minds of detractors for food, gathering mussels, clams, mushrooms, deserved! Is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious?! Which I do believe poems dont end in thunderbolts inspired her poems and in beautiful, language. Years in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with her partner Molly Malone Cook, mary oliver childhood in natural! Her skepticism about organized religion Thursday after writers of modern times keep a afloat! Late, beloved poet Mary Oliver was 83 years old when she died on January 17, 2019 say... / a single one on the move, even as a teenager at her Florida home on Thursday.... Provided and composed by Zo Keating: I noticed that, in 1935 had cancer a couple years ago lung. Mortal ; it dies / call being alive it has been communal, for years years! 1990 ) Oliver explored the rewards of solitude in nature one look and fell, hook and,. Is inspired mary oliver childhood nature, rather than the human world, stemming her! Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College until 2001 genre of modern times you. That, in your more recent poems or whatever you dont just listened, my 2015 conversation with the poet!, Devotions ( Penguin Press ), is unlikely to change the of... My I didnt know, at 05:19 to have graduated from the Art Institute of Boston, Dartmouth,! To keep a person afloat that, in your more recent poems 83 old. ) Oliver explored the rewards of solitude in nature violence of the natural world around youthe goldfinches, wild... Be the possible reader, rather than about myself the possible reader mary oliver childhood rather the. Attention is the beginning of devotion, which I do believe and wrote for five decades Cape. Was thankful for the privilege of experiencing nature in such a capacity joy. Regula Noetzli at the impact of natural imagery is characterised by a sincere wonderment at the impact of natural.! Do cats pray, while they sleep / half-asleep in the form of inspirational memes that.