Upstream: Selected Essays

This essay uses interrupted prose to present several major themes that will carry throughout the work. Oliver grounds the essay in her childhood, describing walking upstream by herself as a young girl while her parents walked in the opposite direction. Oliver frequently stops the narrative to make observations, ask questions, and draw connections. She opens by greeting the natural world. Although trees of the same species may look similar, each is unique, and Oliver calls each one by name.

As the young Oliver walked upstream, she felt the presence of other living things around her. She describes the flowers and ferns that accompanied her. Meanwhile, her parents were upstream. Oliver felt that she was walking toward something important. This was a pivotal moment for the writer, who metaphorically suggests that she never returned home after that walk. As an adult, Oliver looks back and feels a desire to be lost in the same way she was in that moment.

When Oliver is in nature, she feels that she is a part of something larger than herself. She acknowledges that all things are connected. Farmers know to plant their crops in fields where the moon is at its fullest.