Wild Geese

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I read poems in high school thanks to my excellent German teacher. Poems from several different literary periods: some of my favorite were expressionist poems (I wrote my school leaving examination on a poem by Georg Trakl), but my favorite author was Rainer Maria Rilke. Still is, actually. What Rilke does with the German language is phenomenal.
Unfortunately I very rarely read poems after I finished high school, because I didn't encounter them often. And I know very few poems in languages other than German.

For Christmas this year I got a poetry anthology, "Staying Alive." I'm reading it very slowly, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm getting better at reading poetry, at slowing down and reading it again and not to automatically turn to the next page.
I don't like all of the poems, I think poetry is very selective: either it speaks to you or it doesn't. There are a couple that are very beautiful and touching. So far, none I like better than the very first.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
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.

Comments

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I've read it many times :)