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 despair, yours, and I will tell you about mine
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pepples 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 lonley, 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
.