Poem for Patty Mooney

Photo compliments of Leny~s on flickr

I am posting this poem for Patty (A Diary Left Open) because I think it is really beautiful and that she will like it. She writes amazing poetry herself. My sister Deanna (Blue Dragon Arts) shared this poem with me and I hope you guys like it too.

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.



from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

published by Atlantic Monthly Press

© Mary Oliver