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 animals 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
Sometimes you need poetry
Chrisxx
8 comments:
Some days, poetry is all you need.
That's beautiful!
I admit that in school I never much cared for poems. But you've shown me a few that are actually worth reading. I enjoyed this one very much and right here we have hundreds of geese flying by on their way south.
Mary Oliver speaks for and to so many of us.
I rarely read poetry except what people offer on here. My husband can write it and I need to see if he'll write one this year for our Christmas card.
I love Mary Oliver's poetry, and this is one of my favourites. The way she relates human experience to the world all around us is so simple, yet deep.
I like Mary Oliver's poetry so much. With geese flying over almost every day now this poem is especially apt.
I haven't come across Mary Oliver's poetry before but I enjoyed this poem.
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