{"id":817,"date":"2014-10-03T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T00:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=817"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:50:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:50:11","slug":"oct-3-wild-geese-mary-oliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/10\/03\/oct-3-wild-geese-mary-oliver\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct 3 – Wild Geese, Mary Oliver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday October 3 \u2014 “the world offers itself to your imagination”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I missed Wednesday\u2019s list-post. Some good, strong listening Tuesday in the Santa Clara Valley among Advisory Board members for the Center for Science, Technology and Society. Then a Red Eye back home, a morning nap and plenty of ordinary work from then until now. Friday feels fresh, gusty rain and an embarassing Tigers blow-out notwithstanding. It\u2019s the first week when driving around the city, flashes of color & early fallen leaves blowing stop me in my tracks. You too I bet.<\/p>\n

There are 1612 people on this list as of yesterday from UDM and around the rest of the world; we human beings carry our burdens, are surprised by beauty, and sometimes get cranky. Autumn\u2019s wild geese, the poet reminds us, have a thing or two to tell us, pointing us to our place in the family of things. \u201cThe world offers itself to your imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a great weekend.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best to read the poem out loud and then breathe slowly for a little while.<\/p>\n

Wild Geese<\/strong><\/p>\n

You do not have to be good.
\nYou do not have to walk on your knees
\nfor a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
\nYou only have to let the soft animal of your body
\nlove what it loves.
\nTell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
\nMeanwhile the world goes on.
\nMeanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
\nare moving across the landscapes,
\nover the prairies and the deep trees,
\nthe mountains and the rivers.
\nMeanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
\nare heading home again.
\nWhoever you are, no matter how lonely,
\nthe world offers itself to your imagination,
\ncalls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
\nover and over announcing your place
\nin the family of things.<\/p>\n

\"Geese\"<\/p>\n

You can listen to Mary O read her poem at this link but you’ll have to put up with an ad for 15 seconds or so: \u00a0some new action shoot-em-up thriller while I waited for Mary\u2019s voice this morning. \u00a0 Even with the ad, it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lv_4xmh_WtE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday October 3 \u2014 “the world offers itself to your imagination” I missed Wednesday\u2019s list-post. Some good, strong listening Tuesday in the Santa Clara Valley among Advisory Board members for the Center for Science, Technology and Society. Then a Red … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}