Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wild Geese


Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

7 comments:

Theresa said...

SWEET poem! Happy Thanksgiving to you my Friend!

Suz said...

Oh Mary Oliver! I love her!
She makes the complex thought so easy to enter! Thanks I love this poem!
Happy Thanksgiving my sweet friend

Maiden Jane said...

Lovely - thanks!

GARAGE SALE GAL said...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING STACY!!
Warmly,
Deb :)

Dogwood said...

Love the poem and picture of the geese.

Eat, be happy and merry.

GerryART said...

I'm in mid-Missouri.We have Canada geese all over this area. They love any pond and our Conservation Department HQ is just up the road and dozens of these geese are residents at the deparments ponds.

Woollywotnots said...

Thanks for sharing such a lovely poem