Died 1 November 2007
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 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.
These lines, "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver (from her book, Dream Work, 1986), were dedicated by her devoted son, Phillip, whose origami birds perched on her pillow as she died, calmly, bravely, choicefully, freely, as we do, as we all do, as we all do always, left to ourselves.
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