Clinton honors poet Mary Oliver at tribute

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was part of a group of readers who came to New York City on Monday to pay tribute to the late poet Mary Oliver.

Clinton spoke to hundreds of people who attended Oliver’s tribute in Manhattan, earning a standing ovation as she read three of Oliver’s poems and praised the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer’s spirit and storytelling, The Associated Press reports.

Clinton said her late mother was the reason she had heard of Oliver and her work, adding that one of the poet’s most famous pieces, “I Worried,” was “especially suited for the times in which we live.”

NBC News special anchor Maria Shriver and filmmaker John Waters, who knew Oliver for more than 50 years, also attended the tribute, the AP notes.{mosads}

Shriver called Oliver an inspiration, saying she “turned her inside out.”

“It was a friendship [that] began in rejection and ended in total acceptance, total love,” Shriver said, according to the AP.

Oliver died in January at age 83. After her death, Clinton tweeted, “Thank you, Mary Oliver, for giving so many of us words to live by,” before quoting one of her poems.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Thank you, Mary Oliver, for giving so many of us words to live by.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 17, 2019