Wild Geese
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.
Do you have a favorite poem?
5 comments:
Fantastic - and I love the images that you have picked up. thanks for sharing this wonderful post!
Hannah
Love the poem and the images. One of my favorites is by Edna St. Vincent Millay called What Lips My Lips have Kissed. I also love most of Robert Frost's (Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening especially) and Edgar Allen Poe's poetry. Good post! :)
Do I have a favorite poem?! Of course I do...I love so many, but Robert Frost's I just adore (especially The Road Not Taken)! I love this post, the poem, and the images!
I do love Mary Oliver, but even more than this poem, I love the images you selected! LOVE THEM!!
wow, I found your blog by looking up the Painted Drum book by Louise Erdrich, and while browsing your other posts, just saw that you included my favorite poem ever (Mary Oliver). I think I may have to keep an eye on your blog. :)
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