{"id":7562,"date":"2015-03-06T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=7562"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:43:41","slug":"you-do-not-have-to-be-good-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=7562","title":{"rendered":"You Do Not Have To Be Good….."},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to thank Lee Ann Dalton<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

Wild Geese – Mary Oliver<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
You do not have to be good.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
You do not have to walk on your knees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
You only have to let the soft animal of your body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
love what it loves.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Meanwhile the world goes on.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
are moving across the landscapes,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
over the prairies and the deep trees,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the mountains and the rivers.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
are heading home again.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the world offers itself to your imagination,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
over and over announcing your place<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
in the family of things.<\/p>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\nA 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 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The picture? Canada geese on the Jordan river near Niagara. I love “goin’ down to Jordan,” to set my soul free!!
\n
\nHave an awesome day!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7564,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions\/7564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}