Upstream: Selected Essays

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 2,289 ratings

Price: 21.84

Last update: 09-10-2024


About this item

The New York Times bestselling collection of essays from beloved poet Mary Oliver, also named one of O, The Oprah Magazine’s Ten Best Books of the Year, now in audio.

“I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”

So begins Upstream, a collection of essays in which revered poet Mary Oliver reflects on her willingness to lose herself within the beauty and mysteries of the natural world and the world of literature. Emphasizing the significance of her childhood “friend” Walt Whitman, who inspired her to vanish into the world of her own writing, Oliver meditates on the forces that allowed her to create a life for herself out of work and love.

Upstream follows Oliver as she contemplates the pleasure of artistic labor, her boundless curiosity for the flora and fauna that surround her, and the responsibility she has inherited from Shelley, Wordsworth, Emerson, Poe, and Frost, the great thinkers and writers of the past, to live thoughtfully, intelligently, and to observe with passion. Throughout this collection, Oliver positions not just herself upstream but us as well—as she encourages us all to keep moving, to lose ourselves in the awe of the unknown, and to give power and time to the creative and whimsical urges that live within us.

Narrated by poets Hala Alyan, Joy Sullivan, and Kate Baer


Top reviews from the United States

Mariane, Oslo Norway
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely lovely; wise, heartfelt. A book to cherish, savor and read again and again.
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2024
Beautifully written, we are invited to walk with Mary Oliver through her beloved landscapes - and as we do, these landscapes become our own, and our eyes and hearts open more to our own surroundings and the beauty in it, large and small. Also filled with specific writing moments to be inspired by - I just had to include this in my library and already think of it as a dear beloved friend, a fellow traveller on this journey that is life.
Jenny Lee Bates
5.0 out of 5 stars From poet to Poet with gratitude
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2017
Mary Oliver. One of my all time favorite poets had me doubting her in her newest book "Upstream." Until...Section Three - then WHAM! wake up Jenny Bates! you doubting Thomas! It was like I was sleepwalking through Sections One & Two. Of course, Section Three begins with essays about Emerson, Poe, Whitman - take notice! These essays are brilliant and it doesn't stop there. Section Four is as poignant and elegant as any poem by Oliver. So I add this small segment from Section Four to 'things I wish I had written'...my humility back in its place for the time being.
"Dear Bear, it's no use, the world is like that. So stay where you are, and live long. Someday maybe we'll wise up and remember what you were: hopeless ambassador of a world that returns now only in poet's dreams."
Mike Cleary
5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Oliver Remains So Beautifully Uncompromising
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2019
Mary Oliver knew never has forgotten who she is and as importantly, what she is. Barry Lopez suggests, as humans, we are inescapably biological. Mary has always known that and has the unique ability to convey the beauty and importance of that truth of who we all are in this world. These are described as essays. The words here to me are as pure as her poetry. Mary Oliver remained uncompromising in her belief in where she came from and where she belonged. I am so grateful she was so skilled at sharing this with us for so many years.
C. J. Kemp
4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as I expected
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024
I'd give it 3.5, so I rounded up because I'm generous. Her poems are favorites. I think that the essay form requires a kind of sustained poetic writing that starts to feel like a strain after a while. Almost nothing can be said simply. But it's a real pleasure to read something stated simply sometimes, especially if it's surrounded by lots of other things stated poetically. I think the beautiful surprising metaphor carries more weight if it bursts into a passage of plain writing. Just me, probably.
Bonnie L Atkinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful images
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2023
Loved these poems
Mary
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic review of wilderness, akin to Thoreau, from one of this century's greatest poets
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2017
From her reflections on walks in the woods to incredible illuminations of her favorite authors, Oliver's collected essays of Upstream offer a writing for everyone.

"The best use of literature bends not toward the narrow and the absolute," she says, "But to the extravagant and the possible. Answers are no part of it; rather, it is the opinions, the rhapsodic persuasions, the engrafted logics, the clues that are to the mind of the reader the possible keys to his own self-quarrels, his own predicament" (69). A poetic description of reading if ever I've read one. She continues in the same paragraph, of Emerson: "The one thing he is adamant about is that we should look [at things for ourselves]--we must look--for that is the liquor of life, that brooding upon issues, that attention to thought even as we weed the garden or milk the cow" (69).

Observations like the one above abound in Oliver's work, and I would put her nature reflections on par with Emerson or Thoreau, though not as earth-shattering (pun intended) as their writings were for their time. As she says in her writing "Let me be who I am, and then some," she certainly offers who she is, and then some. I, as her reader, am thankful for the experience.

Extra note: She once built a small house in her back yard for $3.58 using scrap lumber and found materials. I find this incredibly inspiring.
Amy Minutillo
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024
Mary Oliver takes you to the treasur's of her heart. It's like eating your favorite food and savoring every bite.
Katherine Cameron
3.0 out of 5 stars This is the House that Oliver Built
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2022
I am a fan of Oliver's poetry. These essays seem like a grab bag from her file drawers, not a coherent series of ideas moving from one chapter to the next. Many writers do this as they near the end, selecting the "left-overs" that deserve a printing or a reprinting.

At one point in the book, Mary Oliver describes her enthusiastic approach to building (by her own hand) a small home, without the accompanying carpentry skills. Her description of the end result serves as a metaphor for this collection of essays. Individually, some are beautiful and worthy. Together, they don't build a structure that makes much sense to me.

I also take issue with Oliver's contention that artists must be totally devoted to their art, and not distracted by "social" demands. This is exactly the way entitled men have staked their claim as artists (or professors, or most other professions) for centuries. Their wives or sisters or daughters were expected to take care of daily needs of family and friends and cleaning and cooking while men devoted themselves to their "important" pursuits behind closed doors - not to be disturbed.

Somehow, so many women have managed to be true artists despite these multiple claims on their time. I would even suggest that had Oliver attended a bit more to the social side of life, her poetry and her essays might be even better than they already are. It is dangerous to define the artist in such a narrow, exclusive way. I wish she had not done so in this book.

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