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.
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.
When they build a shrine to Mary Oliver I am going to go there and worship! You have done this before, Dorothy, and I encourage you to do it again. You are quite right, you can't have enough of a good thing, and it really doesn't get any better than this. It won't be long before the first geese that have bred around James Bay are winging their way south, calling in the most wonderful, evocative way.When I see and hear my first flock I will think of you and Mary Oliver. After a whole life immersed in nature, the migration of the geese is still one of the most moving experiences of all.
ReplyDeleteI always love the image of the world offering itself to our imaginations and, through the calls of the wild geese, announcing our place in the family of things. It's good to remind ourselves that we are a part of Earth's family. We are all related. This poem always reminds me of that.
Deletehaha, a perfect answer to hiding in the bushes! i look (hear) forward every year to the sounds made by a flock passing overhead...
ReplyDeleteIt's such an evocative sound - something I always look forward to.
DeleteShe writes such amazing poems! I need to check out some of her books of poetry. Thanks for sharing this one. :)
ReplyDeleteHer poetry so often references Nature and I love that about it. She wrote about our place in Nature, something that we often ignore.
DeleteI love this poem and will never tire of it.
ReplyDeleteYou are my kind of people!
DeleteI was not big into poetry until I started to read some of your Sunday posts. I love Mary Oliver more and more; I can't get through her poem "When Death Comes" without crying; it makes me so emotional. And I don't care if a poem is a repeat!
ReplyDelete"When Death Comes" is a favorite of mine and I confess my reaction is much the same as yours. It is a very emotional poem.
DeleteSeems optimistic & befriending!
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteSo wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Happy Monday.
ReplyDeletewww.rsrue.blogspot.com
It's my pleasure to share poetry here, especially that of Mary Oliver, a personal favorite.
DeleteThis is a poem I could read every day. It speaks to both the sadnesses of life and its consolations.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very insightful reading of the poem.
DeleteI love her poems the we she makes me picture nature and human human emotions through it is pure joy. 💖
ReplyDelete