top of page
Writer's picture Brian E Pearson

Mary Oliver ("Wild Geese")

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.


Mary Oliver (1925-2019), American poet























This Week on The Mystic Cave podcast: How the Light Gets In: Short Stories


Weddings 'R' Us


Where Your Treasure Is




94 views3 comments

Recent Posts

See All

3 Comments


d.krausert
d.krausert
Aug 16, 2021

Wedding R Us......Oh yes, you were there listening in. You may remember the 'Marriage Commission' that the Anglican Church had for a few years; I used it once to decline a very young and immature couples request for a Wedding event. I just could not proceed.

Like
d.krausert
d.krausert
Aug 16, 2021
Replying to

Yes the Church was not into the marriage business until around 1260BC and it ought not to have ever been.

Like
bottom of page