Mary Oliver's Owls and Other Fantasies
This is my copy of Owls and Other Fantasies on the arm of my Adirondack chair on front porch in Mississippi I first heard of Mary Oliver when I was a U.S. Army first lieutenant serving in Iraq. A friend back home who knew of my bookwormish tendencies thoughtfully sent me a copy of her "Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays", and I became hooked. Her descriptions of quiet, pastoral settings really moved me, and her contemplations on how they related to life provided much needed mental escapes for a few moments at a time, when I needed them the most. As a kid I'd been an avid bird watcher, and her descriptions of sitting quietly in a meadow to watch hummingbirds, or walking through a pine thicket to see her old friend the nighthawk were wonder...