Dr Iain McGilchrist | Daily Poetry Readings #324: Wild Geese by Mary Oliver read by Dr Iain McGilchrist @DrIainMcGilchrist | Uploaded March 2021 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
Part 324 of a daily series of readings of his favourite poetry by Dr Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary. Today's poem is Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.

Please subscribe to this channel to be notified of the next reading.

For updates on Iain's upcoming new platform go to channelmcgilchrist.com

~ Wild Geese by Mary Oliver ~

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.