“Yes, I was the brilliance floating over the snow
and I was the song in the summer leaves, but this was
only the first trick
I had hold of among my other mythologies,
for I also knew obedience: bringing sticks to the nest,
food to the young, kisses to my bride.

But don’t stop there, stay with me: listen.

If I was the song that entered your heart
then I was the music of your heart, that you wanted and needed,
and thus wilderness bloomed there, with all its
followers: gardeners, lovers, people who weep
for the death of rivers.

And this was my true task, to be the
music of the body. Do you understand? for truly the body needs
a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work,
the soul has need of a body,
and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable
beauty of heaven
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.”

From Red Bird, Mary Oliver, Beacon Press, © 2008 by Mary Oliver.

In A Tribute to Mary Oliver, held 8 months and 5 days after her death, at The 92nd Street Y New York, poet and close friend Lisa Starr concluded her moving tribute to Mary by reciting (46:00) the last poem in Mary’s poetry book, Red Bird, called Red Bird Explains Himself.

But before she read the poem, Lisa told the audience she was “taking a tiny bit of poetic license tonight, changing two letters, and I’m gonna call it, Red Bird Explains Herself.”

Even though Mary’s muse, Mother Nature, epitomized as the Red Bird, inspired and informed her, Mary’s poetry did that for us. She is our Red Bird, the song that entered our hearts with the beauty of heaven—a living testament to her life here on Earth.

Bill Reichblum, literary executor of the Mary Oliver Estate, spoke first 1:13, followed by Lindsay Whalen 7:00, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton 11:55, Maria Shriver 18:11, Coleman Barks 28:04, Lisa Starr 33:05, Eve Ensler 50:30, John Waters 58:10, and Mary Oliver 1:04:43, from a recording of her 2012 reading of Wild Geese at the 92nd Street Y.

See RIP: Mary Oliver. Thank you for sharing your poetic gifts with us. They are a national treasure!

^{— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.}

Tags: 92nd Street Y New York, A Tribute to Mary Oliver, Bill Reichblum, Coleman Barks, Eve Ensler, hilary clinton, John Walters, Lindsay Whalen, Lisa Starr, Maria Scriver, Red Bird, Red Bird Explains Himself

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