A truly magnificent poem is universal.  We can all understand.  We have all been there.  When Mary Oliver wrote The Wild Geese, she had been to a place that most of us don't admit publicly.  She had visited despair and loneliness, and remembered it to write about it.

The truth is that everyone has these experiences.  If you live long enough, you will know despair.  If you stay there too long, it can get to be a habit.  Mary's poem reminds us that the answer is simple, that we are all connected by being creatures on this lovely planet, and that given time we will find our place in the family.  

Depression is an obsession with one's own small problems.  It can cause us to forget about the rest of the world.  When one looks up from these problems and sees the greater picture, it is impossible to remain depressed.  One's own problems are invariably small compared to all that is happening in the world, both good and bad.  There is pain and there is hope, and there are the geese flying high in the clear blue air.  This poem has brought me and many others through some tough times, and reminds us to look up from our misery and notice this amazing world that is going on around us.


The Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

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
But meanwhile the world goes on
Meanwhile the sun and the soft petals of rain are moving across the landscapes
Over the prairies and the deep trees, mountains and the rivers
Meanwhile the wild geese high in the clear blue air are heading home again
No matter who 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 again
Announcing your place in the family of things