The Leaf and the Cloud

The Leaf and the Cloud is a single poem in seven parts, running the length of a book, published by Da Capo in 2000. It is the outlier in Mary Oliver's work and the most ambitious thing she wrote.

The subject is the division the title names: the leaf, which can be picked up and looked at, and the cloud, which cannot be held at all. Out of that she builds a long argument about what is observable and what is not, what passes and what persists, and whether the two halves of that can be reconciled by anybody paying close enough attention.

It is harder going than the short lyrics she is loved for, and deliberately so. The sustained form lets her follow a thought further than a two-page poem allows, and the seams between the seven sections are where most of the pressure sits.

Sixty-four pages. Sections of it were picked for the Best American Poetry annual in both 1999 and 2000, before the whole thing appeared. Come to it after the collections, not before.