Wild Geese

Wild Geese

　　by 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 your 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.