Robbed.

Robbed. That's how I feel about not finding out about Mary Oliver until I was 46. I was an ENGLISH MAJOR, fer cryin' out loud!

See this link for more info and to read two of her poems. Or here to see and hear her work, featured ALL THE TIME on Papa Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. (I blame my work schedule for missing The Writer's Almanac on the radio Every Single Day. Guess which site I'll be visiting on my computer each day from now on!)

So I've borrowed Ms. Oliver's National Book Award-winning New and Selected Poems from Cooper High School. It's gonna' be hard to return it Monday, but return it I will...because no one else should advance to the ripe old age of 46 without discovering the joy and light of Mary Oliver!

"Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it."

                                       
                           --Mary Oliver, from "Sometimes"

P.S. For some of the older The Writer's Almanac entries, you may need the free version of RealAudio.

P.P.S. Truth be told, I don't *always* miss TWA. Sometimes I can catch it on sick days or holidays (or the two weeks each summer that Kirsten and I aren't working summer school!) before KACU begins its dreadful daytime music. 

My family's definition of a SPLIT SECOND:

1970S: The time it took elderly Uncle A.G. to get across the living room to switch off The Jeffersons.

1980s: The time it took Karen and me to land on the living room sofa when The Waltons theme song started.

1990s: The time it took Mom to switch radio stations when David Sedaris started talking.

2000s: The time it takes me to turn off KACU when The Writer's Almanac ends and the easy listening begins.