Remembering The 'Ecstatic Poet' Mary Oliver, Who Wrote About The Natural World

The award-winning poet Mary Oliver, who explored the connection between spirituality and the natural world, died last week at the age of 83.

Oliver's poetry used simple language to observe the profound. She wrote about nature, but in those poems, she was also tapping into spirituality, mortality, redemption and optimism. Author Ruth Franklin (@ruth_franklin), who wrote a profile of Oliver for The New Yorker in 2017, says Oliver masterfully tapped into a "vein of desire" for plainspoken poetry — something not necessarily embraced by critics, but a style beloved by every day readers.

Franklin joins Here & Now's Robin Young to talk about Oliver's legacy.