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 your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the 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.

Mary Oliver (Dream Work)

og gendigtet her af Jens Mikkelsen …

 

Vilde Gæs

 

Du behøver ikke at være dygtig.

Du behøver ikke at gå på dine knæ

hundrede mil gennem ørknen, angrende.

Du skal bare lade det bløde dyr i din krop

                      elske hvad det elsker.

Fortæl mig om håbløshed, din, og jeg vil fortælle dig om min.

I mellemtiden, går verden videre.

I mellemtiden, bevæger solen og de klare dråber af regn sig

hen over landskabet,

hen over prærien og de dybe skove,

hen over bjergene og floderne.

I mellemtiden, vil de vilde gæs, højt i den klare blå luft,

flyve hjemad igen.

Og uanset hvem du er, uanset hvor ensom du er,

vil verden tilbyde sig selv for din forestillingsevne,

kalde på dig som de vilde gæs, barsk og spændende –

igen og igen vil den udråbe din plads, din opgave

i altings familie.

 

My Help is in the Mountain

My help is in the mountain

Where I take myself to heal

The earthly wounds

That people give to me.

I find a rock with sun on it

And a stream where the water runs gentle

And the trees which one by one give me company.

So must I stay for a long time

Until I have grown from the rock

And the stream is running through me

And I cannot tell myself from one tall tree.

Then I know that nothing touches me

Nor makes me run away.

My help is in the mountain

That I take away with me.

Nancy Wood, form Hollering Sun (1972)

First you must love your body, in games

in wild places, in bodies of others,

Then you must enter the world of men and

learn all worldly ways. You must sicken.

You must return to your Mother and notice how quiet the house is.

Then return to the world that is

not Man

that you may finally walk in the

world of Man, speaking.

Lew Welch