I have to thank Lee Ann Dalton for this poem. I follow Lee Ann on FB. She writes the column “Made in Canada” in Vogue Knitting and has written about a number of us, myself included. I haven’t been reading a lot of poetry lately, because I haven’t come across any new poets that I am drawn to (to whom I am drawn). Fortunately, Mary Oliver has filled that void!! I love her poetry and I intend to read more of it. Here is the poem Lee Ann recommended, Wild Geese.
Wild Geese – 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. |
A few words and images to take you out of your despair and maybe out of this miserable winter. Or maybe not. I copied this poem and pasted it here over a month ago. Somehow it couldn’t take me out of the despair I was feeling in the blinding cold of February. It speaks to me now, though, as I write and wait for the wild geese to come home. Honk, if you love Spring 🙂
The picture? Canada geese on the Jordan river near Niagara. I love “goin’ down to Jordan,” to set my soul free!!
Have an awesome day!!