Wild Geese - Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You may have read this poem or heard this poem before, or at least some of the lines may be familiar to you already. It is one of those works that gets repeated, and memorized, and its lines used as a mantra. It is good.

I think this poem resonates with so many, like me, because we were taught that we must grovel to deserve any kind of love, attention, or belonging. Yet, Mary says, no. She says, you belong here in this natural world. You belong and you don’t have to be “good.” And you don’t have to beg and repent to be treated with respect. You are valuable exactly as you are, and you are part of this beautiful natural world.

I wanted to bring you some other, less known poem of Mary Oliver’s, but I kept getting pulled back here to this one. So, here it is.

—

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver, in New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1

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.

—

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I’d love to hear from you. I want to know what you think. Did you like this poem? Did any part of it resonate with you? Let me know.