Archives for posts with tag: geese

Wild Geese, Poem by Mary Oliver

February 26, 2013 //

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.

“Wild Geese” appears in Mary Oliver’s collection Dream Work (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986, © Mary Oliver), available at Amazon.com.

Tags birds, environment, geese, inspiration, Mary Oliver, Musings, nature, Poems, Poet, poetry, Women Authors, women poets

Categories Nature, Poetry, Women Authors

What We Need Is Here, Poem by Wendell Berry

December 10, 2012 //

WHAT WE NEED IS HERE

by Wendell Berry

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wendell Berry (born August 5, 1934) describes himself as “an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer.” He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He is also an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, a recipient of The National Humanities Medal, and the Jefferson Lecturer for 2012.