You Do Not Have To Be Good.....

I have to thank Lee Ann Dalton for this poem. I follow Lee Ann on FB. She writes the column "Made in Canada" in Vogue Knitting and has written about a number of us, myself included. I haven't been reading a lot of poetry lately, because I haven't come across any new poets that I am drawn to (to whom I am drawn). Fortunately, Mary Oliver has filled that void!! I love her poetry and I intend to read more of it. Here is the poem Lee Ann recommended, Wild Geese.

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.

A few words and images to take you out of your despair and maybe out of this miserable winter. Or maybe not. I copied this poem and pasted it here over a month ago. Somehow it couldn't take me out of the despair I was feeling in the blinding cold of February. It speaks to me now, though, as I write and wait for the wild geese to come home. Honk, if you love Spring :)

The picture? Canada geese on the Jordan river near Niagara. I love "goin' down to Jordan," to set my soul free!!
Have an awesome day!!