Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992), 110.
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.
1 comment:
Sometimes life is very painful, but I do not believe in a God who only wants pain and guilt from us. This poem encourages me to let go of my preconceived and distorted ideas of what God wants from me. Then I am better able to feel God's love and accept what is.
Loving God, please help me to let go of all my wrong ideas of what you want from me and help me to hear my real call. Help me to find my place in the family of things that you have prepared for me, the place where I fit and where who I am is fully brought into your loving service.
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