Facilitated by Rev. Beth DuBois

Tuesday, Aug 15, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

In Person & Online

Spiritual Renewal Center

1342 Lancaster Ave, Syracuse, NY 13210

$15 or whatever you can afford

A beloved poet and prolific author, Mary Oliver drew regularly on her experience of nature to inform and deepen her spirituality.  We will take some time to savor Oliver's poetry for this season, seeking to enrich our understanding of God's gifts in the summer and our journey as disciples.  Poems will be provided to participants. Copies of the book are available thru the Onondaga County library system, or for purchase online.

A New York Times Bestseller, chosen as Oprah's "Books That Help Me Through" for Oprah's Book Club “No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem.” —The Washington Post

“It’s as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration.” —Chicago Tribune

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades of her esteemed literary career.

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best-selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years. Carefully curated, these 200-plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015.

This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

The Rev. Beth DuBois is a board member at the Spiritual Renewal Center and pastoral associate at University Methodist Church.  She served as the pastor for South Valley Presbyterian Church for the last 25 years and has a broad range of ecumenical and interfaith experience in the Syracuse area.  This includes working with L’Arche Syracuse, Atonement Lutheran Church, Plymouth Congregational Church, Grace Episcopal Church, Interfaith Works, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Syracuse Peace Council/Peace Action, and ACTS.  She is a graduate of Princeton Seminary with an MDiv, and Franklin and Marshall College with a BA in English, minor in Government.