You do not have to be good

 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, & I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun & the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies & the deep trees,

the mountains & 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 & exciting–

over & over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Mary Oliver