I love Mary Oliver's poetry and decided todaywas a good day to add one of my favorites here. Enjoy...
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.
4 comments:
I first came across this poem about five year ago. It triggered something in me. I felt that I truly belonged in the world and that I didn't have to earn my right to be here. I felt like something broken in me had suddenly healed. Mary Oliver is a truly gifted poet.
BTW, your mandalas are lovely.
I had this poem taped up in my office for years, and I still love it. It is a healing place, filled with permission to just BE. And it still has my eyes well up every time I read it.
Yes that is the essence of healing , the permission to just be...to accept ourselves, our lives, our struggles with compassion......
I often read Mary Oliver's poetry in classes and workshops...and feel as if each poem is a gift and I love to turn people on to her....
I was so excited when I saw this post... Mary Oliver is my favorite poet! I heard somebody read "Goldfinches" once and I was forever hooked.
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