Poetry for the Soul: “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver (1986)

Artwork by Ken Wiele on Pexels.

In our darkest hours, when we are at our most vulnerable, we can revisit the wisdom of our poets. Poetry is like food for our soul and can become a co-traveler for the road ahead. Indeed, images and metaphors found within poems enable us to express emotion that may otherwise be too hard and even threatening to utter directly. For me, poetry is like engaging in dialogue where there is a sense of reciprocated understanding and attunement. Below is Wild Geese by Mary Oliver (1986).

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.