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 your 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 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 your 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.
Every morning
between
7:55 and 8:10
they fly
over our home
this morning:
If you want distinctive nature, documentary or portrait photography--photography with soul that inspires you to live a more artful and beautiful life, please contact me.
This post itself is like poetry. Love the words, the thought and the picture! Hope you're well, Bruce!
ReplyDeletehow can it be that you take a photograph of but a flash of a second? how can i be that mary oliver gets it so right?
ReplyDeletewonderful marriage of shot to poem.
xo
erin
I love Mary Oliver and this is a poem I had not read, so thank you. So wonderful that your friends the geese visit every morning. Here we have the whistling ducks flying by in the evening as they head to Audubon park to settle in for the night.
ReplyDeleteIn a such moments (even repeated as routine) we understand how beautiful life is... Thank you for reminding that!
ReplyDelete