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.
You can find this Mary Oliver’s fantastic little book — Dream Work.
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no matter how many times i read this poem, it pierces right through my body armor and settles deep and true inside of me.
i love every word of oliver's but these i love best:
"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."
I know this poem, and I particularly like this line. It's one of the great realizations we can have in this life:
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
I guess it's a warning against too much introspection - that it ultimately serves no useful purpose, so we need to look at the bigger picture and get on with things