Time out for poetry

If you are new to this blog then you may be unaware of the poetry, which has moved here. I don’t know if I picked up a paint brush or pen first in this life. Both have served me well. (I do know that I used a computer at a very young age - young for my generation, and I’m still deciphering how healthy that is turning out.)

This poem came to me from a friend who has battled cancer four times. Four times. It felt very poignant to me because I think its message can ring true to you no matter what kind of struggles you have endured or are enduring.

“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.

© 1986 by Mary Oliver/Dream Work