Sad Poets Society № 16

Accepting our world and ourselves with Mary Oliver

Photo by Ty Feague on Unsplash

Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Sad Poets Society. Today, we’ll be discussing “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver. Let’s get into it.

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.

For days, I’ve been trying to think of something to write about this poem. It’s so beautiful and carries so many messages, and that paralyzed me a bit, even though it begins by telling me I don’t have to be good. I don’t have to have the perfect analysis or anecdote. I don’t have to break this poem down to know that I love it. But still, I didn’t know what to write. I couldn’t think of any words more worthy than the ones Mary Oliver has offered up. Then, this morning, I noticed a small bird trapped under the screen of my lanai.