—Anonymous Photo
WILD GEESE
—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.
_________________
—Medusa, reminding you that if you’re down in San Francisco today, stop at Fort Mason (Bldg. C) from 1-5pm for the Two Autumns Reading by the Haiku Poets of Northern California.
—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.
_________________
—Medusa, reminding you that if you’re down in San Francisco today, stop at Fort Mason (Bldg. C) from 1-5pm for the Two Autumns Reading by the Haiku Poets of Northern California.
