Of Power and Time Essay

Time The article by Mary Oliver is very deep and passionate in a way you can’t help but relate to, in a way you almost understand where the writer is coming from. Through out this article the writer explains through out a poem of how it is to be a writer. The article fails to revolve around any specific thing but does so with descriptive elegance. Oliver is talking through her poetry and saying that she is her own self, and she will write down what she intends to. Through her article she throws around the words â€Å"ordinary† and â€Å"regular†, she doesn’t appear to be referring to herself in anyway, perhaps it is her idea or memory she is indeed referencing. The start of the article begins with the author just walking up on a crisp morning. Someone calls on her and she is forced to abandon the thought she had on her mind. She continues to talk about the things that drive you away from your concentration, like privacy, pencils, paper, and erasers. She describes how you can have an idea or thought on the very edge of your mind and just the slightest thing can drive it away, even if it’s the thought itself. She ponders upon the idea that a thought can drive away the same thought, then simultaneously switches to memories of her as a child ad how she is really still the same. â€Å"most of my education was intended to make me feel comfortable within it† (Mary Oliver). Mary Oliver then suggests that all of her education was not merely for her life use but just for comfort, which her education and views her discomfort as a benefit. She seems to have a backwards view on things most wouldn’t look at. She says that â€Å"The extraordinary is what art is really about†, (Mary Oliver) suggests that she herself does not wish to be ordinary? In her thinking, you have to be a risk-taker type of person to be extraordinary. She is recklessly working away at 6 a. m. in the morning regardless of any social calls. She’s trying to say that no matter what happens, it is up to her to get the poem written like as if she is completely devoted to it. She describes her attachment as loyalty towards the poem. When Oliver says to rejoice if she does not turn up for a meeting or event, she is trying to say; be happy for me, because I will be writing poetry. In Mary’s eyes, the most regretful people are those who felt the call to be great but didn’t act upon it. Mary Oliver is a difficult writer to understand but through it all, one could see what she is truly trying to say. Bibliography Oliver, Mary. â€Å"Of Power and Time. † Blue Pastures (1995).