Animal Me, Animal You

Mary Oliver is a soul friend of mine. She is a poet and she connects me with the natural world and the powerful bond among all living things. She finds soul in plants, animals and even in stones and dirt. One of her books of poetry is entitled God of Dirt.

For Mary, the natural world bleeds, sings, vibrates, engages, and reaches out. Oh, if we could step out of our rational minds and into our bodies – our true, animal bodies, not our abstract minds or ideas of ourselves. Oh what freedom! Her words show us the power of being in touch with the flesh and blood world we live in by connecting to it with our senses.

Take a moment and let the words of her poem “Wild Geese” roll over you. Don’t just skim or read the words like you would a recipe or a news article. Let them permeate your senses, play with your preconceptions, saturate your soul, and give you the freedom to know you belong. This poem is from her newly released book of selected poems called Devotions.

 

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 in 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.

 

Be well,

Bill