A Poem for the first of May

The first of May seemed like a perfect day to share this poem by Mary Oliver . For all my friends and family in the northern hemisphere longing for warmer days, this speaks to the truth of nature and how it is always there for us, waiting. Oblivious to our personal perils.

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 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, from her poetry collection, Dream Work