study at the window.

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. 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

****

every day. 

every day of my life. 

i stand at this window and gaze out at the woodlands behind the house. 

if the sky remains asleep and wrapped in darkness and starlight, 

my study is of the varied trinkets resting on the windowsill. 

rocks and feathers and swan and rabbit, gifts from kith and kin. 

rocks and brass pony, a poodle in a skirt, gifts i have presented to my soul, 

to my self, 

because i need them. 

today i need to ground myself right here,  

right here in what is visual and heartfelt. 

because today my spirit needs some mending. 

********