introduction

A pen, paper, and a breath of air

About Power and Time
A pen, paper, and a breath of air
Stay alive

Blue Pasture

In Herring Cove
owls
Blue Pasture
ponds
Cheer

Life companions

My friend Walt Whitman
Four companions with a passion for life
stipple top
A few words

The Poet's Voice

City flounder, one
The Poet's Voice
City flounder, two

Acknowledgements
Translator's Note
Recommendation
Author's chronology
Tributes to Mary Oliver

The poet's message as he returned to the weed-covered sand dunes
“Life is either Niagara Falls or nothing.”

Mary Oliver, known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and the poem "Wild Geese," which was recited by then-Vice President Joe Biden at the 2009 September 11th terrorist attack memorial service and imprinted in the hearts of people around the world.
In Korea, he quickly satisfied readers' poetic hunger with two prose collections, 『Perfect Days』 (2013) and 『The Whistler』 (2015).
The poet, who has lived his entire life as a piece of nature, returned to what he calls “wild, weed-covered sand dunes” earlier this year.
It had been four years since I left Provincetown, the home of my beloved life and writing, and moved to Florida after my health deteriorated.
Celebrities from all walks of life, including Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Roxane Gay, expressed their condolences at the death of the poet beloved by his generation.

The third collection of essays published by Maumsanchaek, 『Long Breath』, is composed of essays written before the two previously published books.
She meticulously captures the turbulent changes of nature in the passing seasons, ponders how to maintain her artistic self while creating, reflects on the “life companions” who shaped her into a literary girl in her childhood, and unfolds her own theory of poetry and stories about modern American poetry with a “long breath.”
Mary Oliver's delicate observations and unwavering insight into nature, life, and literature, which permeate her life, are brought to life through her solid prose.

The recognition that humans are also part of the natural world is that “life is either Niagara or nothing.
This is most clearly expressed in the concise sentence, “I will not be the ruler of a single blade of grass, but will be its sister.”
The void left by Mary Oliver, who was acclaimed as America's greatest poet, still looms large.
For readers who have yet to find the sparkling words that will fill their souls in his stead, this book will resonate warmly and richly above all else.

The book is full of bias, passion, and the author's flaws.
This book is biased and dogmatic, but it is also enjoyable and perhaps even despairing.
Is it possible to live sixty years effortlessly, without despair? But readers will discover joy more clearly and more frequently than the rivulets of discouragement.
Because my life has been influenced by these enduring passions: my love of the wild world, my love of literature, and my love of others.
─From the “Preface” on page 8

A song of supreme joy in living in harmony with nature
“None of us are cute.”

In his recommendation, poet Lee Je-ni describes Mary Oliver as “a devoted observer of nature for a very long time, who has fiercely practiced and realized the vastness of nature and the order of the universe through her own sentences and her own life.”
Mary Oliver found joy in the most primal sense of life, right in the heart of nature.
In particular, the records that constantly capture the cycle of seasons with a keen eye are superior to any nature observation journal.
In "Owls," he persistently searches for a great horned owl and confirms that the world he and the great horned owl live in is one world. In "Green Pasture," he goes fishing and is delighted by the fact that "he didn't catch anything." In "Ponds," he names an unnamed pond and spends the day observing turtles, ducks, and foxes.

Sometimes I lean over and look into the water.
The pond water is a rough and honest mirror.
Not only my gaze, but also the halo of the world that merges into the water shadow from all sides shines.
So the swallows that fly across the pond and sing a little song fly over my shoulder and through my hair.
A turtle slowly gliding across the muddy ground touches my cheekbone.
_From page 83, “Ponds”

Meanwhile, Mary Oliver is blunt in saying that there is nothing attractive or cute in the forest.
Because we clearly understand the meaning of the words cute, attractive, or lovable.
“Cute is small, helpless, captureable, tameable, and possessable.
It sounds an alarm at the arrogance of humans who try to label nature, saying, “It’s all a mistake.”
This would be a unique and profound reflection that only a poet who has lived thoroughly as a “full member of nature” could bring out.

In this way we become our own masters.
If nature is filled with lovely, charming, tiny, and helpless things, who will be in power? We! We are the parents and the rulers.
Such thinking leads us to see the world as a playground or a laboratory, a perspective that is clearly inadequate.
And it's also dishonest.
On the surface, it seems so harmless and responsible, but in reality, it is neither.
_From page 117, “A Few Words”

A brilliant world of poetry created by sparkling thoughts
Poetry reflects countless echoes.

In this book, Mary Oliver reveals the notes from her small notebook.
In the notebook, which is “used haphazardly and chaotically,” everything that is seen, heard, and thought in life is written down, including fleeting thoughts, observations of nature, and quotes.
Although “some of them never make the leap to complete prose or poetry,” they are poignant records of his life.
Through the habit of consistent and meticulous record-keeping, we can glimpse, though not completely, the poet's special daily life.

The record takes me back to the experience of feeling, whatever it is, for whatever reason I wrote it.
This is important.
Then, rather than thinking back on the idea, the meaning of the event, I can think about it before the idea even comes.
What I want to capture in my notebooks is not comments or thoughts, but the moment.
And of course, there are many cases like this that we want to capture in the finished poem itself.
_From page 22, “A Pen, Paper, and a Breath of Air”

What makes 『Long Breath』 even more welcome is that it allows us to encounter the first two works of the serial poem "Flounder" and to look into Mary Oliver's theory of poetry.
It is significant in that it is an early prose collection by Mary Oliver, who mainly published poetry, and thus allows us to confirm the origins of her literary milestones.
Mary Oliver tells of the joy of the moment when childhood experiences, curiosity, and imitation, combined with the intelligence and individuality built up through hard work, become poetry.

He also emphasizes the importance of the 'first poem' we encounter, and summons up his beloved poets one by one, starting with Whitman's poem, which he first encountered, and then Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, Walter de la Mare, and John Keats.
Furthermore, after examining the theoretical aspects of poetry, such as its grammar, changes in subject matter and intention, and the interest of rhythm and rhyme, it emphasizes the importance of imagining the landscape of 'poetry' in a world that is losing poetry.
Mary Oliver is dead, but the poet's poetry and life, which live on with a strong spirit, will be etched deep in our hearts for a long time through "Long Breath."

So, the poet's voice begins with the poems encountered as the first example.
To do and create something, you must first be captivated and captivated by what already exists.
To love poetry and become a poet, you must love one poem, and then several poems.
_From page 125, “The Poet’s Voice”

No attempt is about one or some of us, but about all of us.
Poetry is part of a long record of our species.
Every poem is about my life, about your life, and about countless lives to come.
_From page 139, “The Poet’s Voice”