Mary Oliver Poem #2: Storage

 STORAGE

When I moved from one house to another

there were many things I had no room

for. What does one do? I rented a storage 

space. And filled it. Years passed.

Occasionally I went there and looked in,

but nothing happened, not a single

twinge of the heart.

As I grew older the things I cared

about grew fewer, but were more 

important. So one day I undid the lock

and called the trash man. He took

everything. 

I felt like the little donkey when

his burden is finally lifted. Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful 

fire! More room in your heart for love, 

for the trees! For the birds who own

nothing - the reason they can fly.




This Mary Oliver poem speaks to me on so many levels about my feelings towards American consumerism. Foremost, Oliver brings up the fact that the new house she will be moving into does not have the space to accommodate all the items she has collected over the years. For this reason, she chooses to rent a storage unit to store all of her extra belongings. After some time, however, she finds herself visiting the unit less and less. She also noticed that she felt little emotion when she visited the unit, even though originally she had thought that these items were so important that she needed to keep them stored away.

In a capitalistic society, people are taught to love material items, even going as far as to tie their worth to what they own. When you graduate college, you are expected to get a high-paying job in order to afford a nice house/apartment. Some may choose to spend their sign-on bonus on a new car as a reward for their accomplishments. Others will elect to buy jewelry, accessories, clothes, electronics, or whatever material item they place value on. We are forced to work to not only pay for our essentials but also to buy the things we want. This turns into a vicious cycle of never-ending work and dissatisfaction because material items cannot truly bring you happiness in life.

With overconsumption ingrained in our culture, we buy until we bury ourselves in debt, all while living under the illusion that owning all these things equates to a fulfilling life. But when we own so many useless things here on Earth, we only become more tied to our worldly existence and societal expectations. How can we ever be free from the pressures of this world when we are so invested in it? I agree with Oliver when she compares a person who is free of material obsessions to a bird. Birds survive purely off of their necessities, not collecting or hoarding goods for pleasure. For that reason, they are able to literally fly free from the constraints of Earth, and have a completely different perspective on how they see the world as a result.

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