Poetry Grab Bag: "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 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. --- This has been one of my favorite poems for a long time, and I thought it'd be especially appropriate to share with our class since it involves birds. I really love this poem because I find it calming, in that "you are part of the world and the world keeps moving on and so will you, you are very small in the vast scheme of things" way, which is often something I find very helpful. I also thought the phrase "the soft animal of your body" was vaguely Rekdel-esque, what with her "small, soul-colored thing".