Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese"
Poetry is something that I often struggle to connect with...despite having majored in Literature.
But I've been lucky enough to find poets, whose words make me feel something deep within. Mary Oliver is one of them. And "Wild Geese" is one of those poems, that feels so full of life-affirming warmth. Every time I read it, it reminds me of how deeply connected we all are.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.