The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays

97 Pages·2008·0.22 MB·English

by  Mary Oliver

t h e t ru ro b e a r
a n d ot h e r a dv e n t u r e s

The Truro Bear
and Other Adventures
poems and essays
Mary Oliver
beacon press
boston
Beacon Press
25Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 2008by Mary Oliver
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 08 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper ANSI/NISO
specifications for permanence as revised in 1992.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oliver, Mary
The truro bear and other adventures : poems and essays / Mary Oliver.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8070-6884-7 (acid-free paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8070-6884-5 (acid-free paper) 1. Animals—Poetry. I. Title.
PS3565.L5T78 2008
811'.54—dc22 2008015400
other books by mary oliver
POETRY
No Voyage and Other Poems
The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems
Twelve Moons
American Primitive
Dream Work
House of Light
New and Selected Poems Volume One
White Pine
West Wind
The Leaf and the Cloud
What Do We Know
Owls and Other Fantasies
Why I Wake Early
Blue Iris
New and Selected Poems Volume Two
Thirst
Red Bird
CHAPBOOKS AND SPECIAL EDITIONS
The Night Traveler
Sleeping in the Forest
Provincetown
Wild Geese (UK Edition)
PROSE
A Poetry Handbook
Blue Pastures
Rules for the Dance
Winter Hours
Long Life
Our World (with photographs by Molly Malone Cook)

co n t e n ts
The Chance to Love Everything 1
The Gesture 3
Porcupine 4
Toad 5
One Hundred White-sided Dolphins on a Summer Day 6
The Kitten 9
Ghosts 10
Carrying the Snake to the Garden 14
The Opossum 16
This Is the One 17
At Herring Cove 19
Coyote in the Dark, Coyotes Remembered 21
Turtle 23
The Other Kingdoms 25
Swimming with Otter 26
Black Snake 27
FiveA.M.in the Pinewoods 28
Humpbacks 30
Moles 34
The Snow Cricket 36
Whelks 38
A Meeting 40
The Gift 42
The Truro Bear 44
Alligator Poem 45
The Hermit Crab 47
Hannah’s Children 49
Pipefish 50
This Too 53
Swoon 54
How Turtles Come to Spend the Winter in the Aquarium, Then Are
Flown South and Released Back Into the Sea 61
The Poet Goes to Indiana 63
The Summer Day 65
Mink 66
Percy (One) 68
Percy (Two) 69
Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night (Three) 70
Percy (Four) 71
News of Percy (Five) 72
Percy (Six) 73
Percy (Seven) 74
Percy and Books (Eight) 75
Percy (Nine) 76
I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life (Ten) 77
Percy at His Bath, or, Ambivalence (Eleven) 78
Percy at Breakfast (Twelve) 79
Percy Speaks While I Am Doing Taxes (Thirteen) 80