Thank you to all of you for being here, whether you’re trying the Daily Words or not. It’s also National Poetry Month, and maybe some of you are writing poems… or reading them… Or maybe you’re just hanging on, trying to stay sane during this weird and challenging time. I hope you and yours are staying well, and I send my best. (It took me awhile to get back to writing once this pandemic hit, but right now, I’m finding it’s easier to edit than generate new work.)
Here is one poem that always brings me solace. Perhaps you’ve read it before? No matter. Poems often bring new or deeper meanings on multiple readings. Honestly, I cried this morning, reading this gem for the hundredth time. xox
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.
