Dear Friend,
Today, we begin our contemplative reading of Mary Oliver’s Long Life: Essays and Other Writings. I’m a huge fan of Oliver’s poetry, so I’m looking forward to venturing into her prose writing as well.
Why Contemplative Reading?
Contemplative reading asks us not just what we’re learning about the book in our hands (or ears), but what we’re learning about ourselves through the experience of reading it. The aim is to create deeper awareness of ourselves and understanding of others. It is often described as “holistic,” but also as “heart-knowing.”
Heart-knowing. Doesn’t that sound nice?
Long Life
As I mentioned when introducing the Contemplative Reading Project, something I hope to do with this exercise is to explore all different genres of writing, including poetry. As this is our first poet, though, I wanted to ease us in a bit, and so I’ve selected a text from one of my favorite poets, but where poetry isn’t the only writing within it (or even its focus, really). I imagine, or I hope, this will be an opportunity for more readers who are less familiar with poetry to gain entry and build confidence.
The Plan
Long Life is not a long text, and it is conveniently structured into four parts. We have four weeks to cover the book, so doesn’t that work out nicely? Now, some parts are longer than others, which means some weeks will require a bit more reading than others, but by my count, even the longest section is only twenty-eight pages. That’s just four pages per day!
As I aim to be truly contemplative, taking time to think about and write about what I’m reading, my personal plan is to divide those pages further into daily meditative reading, which I’ll do each morning. Please feel welcome to follow my pace or to set one that works for you.
As we begin, I have my copy of Oliver’s book ready, along with my journal for this project. I imagine it will take me through about six months or so of contemplative reading. I’ve switched from my Pilot G7 pen to a Studio Series Micro-Line .05 marker, color purple. If the ink is too much for the book’s or journal’s pages, though, I will find something else to use for writing and annotating.
Reading & Responding
Each set of reading will guide my responses here on the blog and on social media. I might sometimes share the most provocative line or passage, and what it makes me think about. Other times, I might ask questions about the reading, things I’m wondering about or confused about. And still further, I might compare what I’m reading to what it reminds me of from other readings or experiences.
I don’t want to give too much guidance about how to read, except to say, read attentively, read slowly, and listen to yourself. What thoughts and feelings arise as you’re reading? Write them down and give yourself some moments to reflect on why you’re thinking what you’re thinking, or why you’re feeling what you’re feeling.
Schedule
My reflections on the reading will appear here every week, on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. That’s the schedule I’ll keep every month. I will also be interacting on social media, of course, and may share micro-thoughts and favorite quotes or reactions on Instagram, Threads, X, and Facebook. I encourage you to join me in these conversations, or here in the blog comments. On social media, please use #theCRPblog so we can find one another. This week, I aim to read the Foreword and Part One: Flow. This looks to be about eighteen pages.
Meditation: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for..”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society
Love,
~Adam
Contemplative Reading Project 
Leave a comment