Tell
me, what is it you plan to do
with
your one wild and precious life?
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,
call
to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over
and over announcing your place
in
the family of things.
Tell
me, what is it you plan to do
with
your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver
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