What to do with awaking too soon, too alert to rest,
and so many hours until dawn? I do have nights in
which I sleep 5 hours at a stretch, and can also
return for more. Not so, right now. So, I pull out
the poetry books and look for a light.
And I found one:
“W I L D G E E S E
(it’s alright,
it’s familiar, that helps, so, one more time):
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, 1992
Yes, ‘harsh & exciting’, and an inappropriate time of
year to look up, for the geese have long fled south,
or are currently on their way.
Tonight I read these words out loud, and the world’s
call is clear. Once known, once experienced, there is
a fresh newness and sweetness each time.
Wow!
always with love,
Mom/Mimi/Toni/Antoinette