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.
~ Mary Oliver ~
from Dream Work (1986) 
I encourage you to go out and buy the book Dream Work by Mary Oliver. It’s been on my shelf for years, and I pull it down to read again and again.
P.S. I am an ex-shrink who writes award-winning novels. Check out my books here.
From my lovely email subscribers and/or facebook friends:
“I love Mary Oliver. She is my favorite of all poets. This poem doesn’t seem familiar to me. I am wondering from what collection you read it?????” J.L.
Sorry I forgot to identify the collection, J. It’s from Dream Work, 1986.
Also:
“How lovely! Thank you for the poem-it makes the day extra special.” A.B.
And:
“Thanks so much for that beautiful poem Susan. As usual, it was timely and came just when I needed to read the words. I shall share it tomorrow evening with the poetry circle. Indeed it does touch and inspire me. Some time ago, I was finally able to truly embrace my atheism, and it opened new doors for me. For the first time in my life, I truly felt the freedom of “flight” inside, and was no longer restricted by the fear, guilt and superstition that religion imposed on me. There are connections to all, throughout the multi-verse.” T.
and:
“Oh Susan, sending me the poem Wild Geese today is just what I needed. It lifted my spirit after an agonizing day at the hospital with my husband who is very ill. Thank you for your inspiration. Mary”
Kind of a poetry virgin ;-), but I’ve been reading something lately that has sure helped me with finding my place, aesthetically: https://www.amazon.com/Testaments-Betrayed-Essay-Nine-Parts/dp/0060927518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295386059&sr=8-1
Simply a brilliant man!
I’ve only read a few Mary Oliver poems, but they’ve all been good so I suppose I should read some more, eh? My favorite of hers thus far is “Dogfish.” There’s something of Rumi there for me in her words. Not his religious stuff, but his poems like “Strange Business”:
You sit here for days saying, This is strange business.
You’re the strange business.
You have the energy of the sun in you,
but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine.
You’re some weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace,
so you won’t have to become coins.
Say ONE in your lonesome house. Loving all the rest is hiding inside a lie.
You’ve gotten drunk on so many kinds of wine.
Taste this.
It won’t make you wild.
It’s fire. Give up, if you don’t understand by this time
that your living is firewood.
This wave of talking builds.
Better we should not speak, but let it grow within.
Wow, I love this poem, Sonja. I especially love this line: It’s fire. Give up, if you don’t understand by this time that your living is firewood….
Thanks so much for posting this!