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 your 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.
Mary Oliver
(September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019)
2 comments:
Wonderful photo...I've never seen a flock that big! Yes, Mary Oliver is flying in the stars now, and our world is a little dimmer for having lost her bright spirit. I keep posting her poems, as others are, on Facebook. Such a beautiful soul.
Both the photo and Mary Oliver's words connect me with the truth of the earth and the hope for more peace.
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