“Do You Love This World?” : Painting Mary Oliver’s Peonies

Mary Oliver's writing manages to cross the two worlds of ethereal metaphor and the grounded astonishment of the natural world. I came across her work for the first time via The Orange with it's witty pith and joy in the everyday moments staying with me long after reading. Soon after, I bought the book Devotions, the one with the baby bird being fed delicately from a spoon on the cover.

And it was in those pages that I found the poem Peonies. I read it eagerly with my friend Lucy in mind, who grows armfuls of magnificent peonies each year. The poem begins:

"This morning the green firsts of the peonies are getting ready

to break my heart

as the sun rises,

as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers"

And then, the poem opens fully:

"the flowers bend their bright bodies, and tip their fragrance to the air, and rise, their stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness

gladly and lightly,

and there it is again - beauty the brave , the exemplary,

blazing open.

Do you love this world?"

It is that final question that lingers. The peonies are not merely flowers. They are an invitation to attention, to gratitude, to presence. Read the full poem here.

This series of paintings emerged from that same sense of abundance - petals heavy with light, forms on the edge of collapse, colour layered thickly enough to feel almost excessive.

The original peony paintings inspired by Peonies are available to view and purchase here:

Beauty the Brave

Do you love this world?

To be rich in flowers, as Oliver suggests, is perhaps simply to pay attention.