You do not have to be good. <br />You do not have to walk on your knees <br />for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. <br />You only have to let the soft animal of your body <br />love what it loves. <br />Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. <br />Meanwhile the world goes on. <br />Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain <br />are moving across the landscapes, <br />over the prairies and the deep trees, <br />the mountains and the rivers. <br />Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, <br />are heading home again. <br />Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, <br />the world offers itself to your imagination, <br />calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting- <br />over and over announcing your place <br />In the family of things.<br /><br />Alison Cassidy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/wild-geese-by-mary-oliver/
