Wild Geese – Mary Oliver

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This topic contains 2 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  JavaJeff 6 years, 2 months ago.

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  • #2412

    Shinkai
    Member

    How relevant this poem is to the Dharma is open to interpretation, but I think it’s very beautiful anyway, so I thought I’d share 🙂

    Wild Geese

    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.

    – Mary Oliver

    #2413

    Anonymous

    Shinkai,

    That is quite lovely. I had not read this poem before. It certainly speaks to being clearly in the present. thank you

    Colleen Vaughn
    Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

    #2417

    JavaJeff
    Member

    I love this – thank you. Very relevant to my current inquiries into being-here-now, versus getting caught up in the stories of the world

    – Jeff

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