This is one of my favorite poems ever. I found it in a book of famous and not-so-famous poetry that I started keeping when I was in high school. I want to add to the book, so if you want to send me any of your favorite poems, please do!
My favorite thing about this poem is that it makes me feel small, making my problems and concerns feel miniscule in comparison to nature. And that’s a really good thing. We can all whine and despair, but “meanwhile the world goes on.” If we waste our time obsessing over our own problems, we may miss beautiful opportunities that are flying all around us. This poem reminds me to love what I love, and to look up in the sky when I’d rather hide inside myself.
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.
SocialVibe