ciao samin

sabrina ward harrison's reading the other night was lovely, and i'm so happy i managed to get myself there. she was the firefly of my evening, lighting up so much for me. i'm especially grateful to her for what she does for so many young girls. i'd like to do something like that one day.

i came home and decided to invite her to be my friend. i already wrote a letter to her and everything, i just need to find an address to send it to.

i've been struggling for a while, trying to find the energy, the motivation, to write, to consciously sit down with the goal of being creative. i know it's not simple, and i won't be able to just start cranking out beauty at a whim, but i thought that it might be nice to surround myself with poems i love. i thought i'd start posting some of my favorite poems from time to time, at once giving myself a little burst of inspiration and sharing a little bit of myself (for isn't what i love just another small insight into who i am?) with my friends.

so, with that thought, here is:

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 clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and 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