Mary Oliver: A poet who speaks to the ‘state of the soul’
Christian Science Monitor · C · trust 36/100
| © NW Orchard LLC/Library Of Congress Mary Oliver spent decades on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where she wrote many of her most iconic poems. A documentary about her life and work, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World,” streams on PBS as part of the “American Masters” series. Loading...
Like many Americans, filmmaker Sasha Waters turned to the poetry of Mary Oliver for comfort during the pandemic. “Her work really seemed to circulate in 2020 and 2021, when people were dealing with grief and loneliness and were finding solace in nature,” Waters says. “I was fascinated by how her poems helped people connect during the darkest days, even when they couldn’t connect in person.”
When the pandemic ended, Waters felt compelled to tell the story of Oliver, who was described as America’s bestselling poet in 2007 by The New York Times.
Waters applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant in partnership with the PBS series “American Masters” in 2023. She received funding in 2024. Yet in 2025, after production began, funding for the film was cut by the federal government. WNET/American Masters was committed enough to the project to continue with production. Waters’ documentary, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World,” debuts nationally Tuesday (check local listings) and streams on PBS.
Mary Oliver’s poems resonate because she used vivid imagery and plain language to convey the beauty, rhythm, and order of the natural world. Filmmaker Sasha Waters’ new documentary, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World,” tells the story of a “solitary kid” who became a beloved, bestselling poet.
The film is a beautifully nuanced, thoughtful portrait of Oliver and her work, from her first poems, written at age 13, to her great success in midlife. She won poetry’s most prestigious prizes, and later, large crowds flocked to her sold-out readings and lectures.
Em White Filmmaker Sasha Waters, speaking about Mary Oliver’s disciplined writing process, says: “She shows us that you’ve got to take yourself seriously ... and be consistent, not forcing things, but showing up regularly because the creative part of your mind is always ready.” Waters deftly illustrates Oliver’s evolution by seamlessly combining archival video and audio recordings, photos, notebook pages, and interviews with contemporary poets and media figures, who discuss the importance of her work and its impact on their own lives.
The film opens with Oliver and others reading lines from several of her poems. Comedian and former talk show host Stephen Colbert explains that he sends the poem “The Summer Day” to his children each year on the first day of summer. When Colbert tries to read the first line – “Who made the world?” – he stumbles with emotion.
Oliver’s work resonates, as many speakers note, because she uses vivid imagery and plain language to capture specific moments and convey a sense of wonder at the beauty, rhythm, and order of the natural world. She also asks profound questions and hints at the vast consciousness that underlies all of nature.
That approach stems from Oliver’s lifelong practice of walking in the woods and paying close attention to what she saw and heard. She began spending time in nature when she was a child growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland. Yet, as the film reveals, her walks didn’t just teach her about nature. They helped her escape loneliness and abuse at the hands of her father.
In audio clips, Oliver describes herself as “kind of a solitary kid” who “very much wished not to be noticed and to be left alone.” She also says, “The two things I loved from a very early age were the natural world and dead poets” – especially “Whitman, Whitman, and Whitman.”
Those loves accompanied Oliver when she moved, the day after her high school graduation, to Steepletop, the historic farmstead of one of her idols, Edna St. Vincent Millay, in Austerlitz, New York. Oliver worked there on and off for several years as a secretary for Millay’s sister, helping to organize the late poet’s papers. Oliver studied for a year at Ohio State University and a year at Vassar College, and then moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. On a return visit to Steepletop, she met Molly Malone Cook, a photographer employed by The Village Voice, who would later become the poet’s manager and partner for more than 40 years.
Barbara Savage Cheresh Mary Oliver is quoted as saying: “The two things I loved from a very early age were the natural world and dead poets” – especially “Whitman, Whitman, and Whitman.” Malone Cook provided stability and encouragement, which helped Oliver develop her confidence and talent. Malone Cook also emphasized that “attention without feeling is only a report.”
Oliver’s first collection of poems, “No Voyage, and Other Poems,” was published in 1963, when she was age 28. The couple spent the summer of 1964 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and stayed to start a new life amid the thriving arts scene and rugged coastal beauty.
Oliver’s career surged after Joyce Carol Oates wrote a glowing review of her collection “The Night Traveler” in 1978. “American Primitive” won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. In 1992, Oliver received the National Book Award for “New and Selected Poems: Vol. I.”
Several poets in the documentary reflect on Oliver’s profound impact and distinctive voice. Major Jackson, poetry editor of the Harvard Review, says Oliver’s work and background differ greatly from his own. Yet after reading “Twelve Moons,” he “took to her because the deep kind of lyric presence leapt off the page for me. I could hear that sense of rapture in her work.”
One of the most poignant sections is a quick montage of piles of fan mail from people who loved Oliver’s words and wanted to thank her for “saving” their lives.
As the documentary continues, Waters addresses Oliver’s grief after Malone Cook’s death in 2005 and an unhappy move to Florida, where Oliver lived until her passing in 2019.…
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