Customer Reviews

Wild Geese (Bloodaxe World Poets)

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This is a classic and wonderful book of poetry. Mary Oliver is one of, if not the best, poets alive today. This book is a wonderful sampling of her naturalistic based poetry. The title poem Wild Geese is wonderful and shows her unique style:

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 have only 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 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.

This woman is a stunning poet. She brings the world alive to you. She doesn't just write sweet poems about nature - she links her extraordinary observation with a spiritual element - looking at us, our lives, meaning, through a dead snake, the movement of a swan through water....
google her on-line and read a poem or two - you'll want to buy the book.