Saturday, February 5, 2011

i love mary oliver...

more than words can say....
a poem for you on this beautiful saturday afternoon.

Wild Geese 
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.
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.



24 comments:

  1. beautiful... <3
    thank you for this. :)
    mary oliver is wonderful!

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  2. Hi Alison!

    We featured your song 'Stood Up' as our first ever song of the week at http://projectwebelieve.com/ because it echoes our philosophy of standing up for your rights and promoting tolerance and non-violence in our global society.

    http://projectwebelieve.com/?p=549 -- Please let us know what you think.


    :) thank you for the amazing music, always! :)

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  3. this is really cute, just like your songs. They inspire me to be a better person!

    Kisses from Brazil (and I hope you can come here someday for a concert!)

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  4. Mary Oliver is a beautiful woman Allison.
    Weather she was spawned from the frenzy in your mind, or the family of things, she is a wonderful idea and I thank you for introducing her to me.

    Vole't

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  5. Made me feel calm for a moment, its been a long time since ive seen anything but grey. Very nice. Thanks.

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  6. This is one of my favorite poems... It's reassuring without being naive. So, so pretty.

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  7. Wonderful. Simply, wonderful. <3

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  8. Poetic message before going to sleep ...

    La cura - Franco Battiato



    Ti proteggerò dalle paure delle ipocondrie,
    dai turbamenti che da oggi incontrerai per la tua via.
    Dalle ingiustizie e dagli inganni del tuo tempo,
    dai fallimenti che per tua natura normalmente attirerai.
    Ti solleverò dai dolori e dai tuoi sbalzi d'umore,
    dalle ossessioni delle tue manie.
    Supererò le correnti gravitazionali,
    lo spazio e la luce
    per non farti invecchiare.
    E guarirai da tutte le malattie,
    perché sei un essere speciale,
    ed io, avrò cura di te.
    Vagavo per i campi del Tennessee
    (come vi ero arrivato, chissà).
    Non hai fiori bianchi per me?
    Più veloci di aquile i miei sogni
    attraversano il mare.

    Ti porterò soprattutto il silenzio e la pazienza.
    Percorreremo assieme le vie che portano all'essenza.
    I profumi d'amore inebrieranno i nostri corpi,
    la bonaccia d'agosto non calmerà i nostri sensi.
    Tesserò i tuoi capelli come trame di un canto.
    Conosco le leggi del mondo, e te ne farò dono.
    Supererò le correnti gravitazionali,
    lo spazio e la luce per non farti invecchiare.
    TI salverò da ogni malinconia,
    perché sei un essere speciale ed io avrò cura di te...
    io sì, che avrò cura di te




    [URL=http://img155.imageshack.us/i/buscau.jpg/][IMG]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/193/buscau.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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  9. I hadn't read that Oliver poem!

    What a great first line. "You do not have to be good." Who doesn't love to hear that?

    Great message toward the middle and end, too.

    Thanks for sharing.

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  10. "You only have to let the soft animal of your body
    love what it loves."

    I love that! What a beautiful message. Thanks for sharing.
    Have a lovely week!

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  11. never read mary oliver before. this is good :)
    and your poetry is beautiful too, alison :)

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  12. I bet that you don't know this... :)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJrEBtmM1Q

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  13. Thanks for posting this poem! It's so odd the way life is sometimes, the poem has described my day exactly as it had occurred, line by line, I got goose bumps reading it.
    Very lovely Alison,
    Best wishes from NYC!! :)

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  14. thank you for sharing a poem that touched your heart. here's one that touches mine...

    seamless

    i try to hold it together
    this nervous shipwreck in bottles
    as each one gets tossed in continuous waves under my toes
    and the feeling comes and goes
    overwhelming and all together, perfect
    a silent affection that tears me up inside
    torn apart and sewn back seamlessly, right on time

    donroseonaski  2-8-11

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  15. to sew something seamlessly is a mystery, yet it's one to fall in love with, definitely

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  16. that was the literary quote of the day awhile ago! i hadn't seen the whole thing though, thank you. also i've just gotten your bomb in a birdcage album and it's great - don't leave off chicago on a tour list!

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  17. you like read? you are curious?
    nice saturday Alison

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  18. this made me smile :)
    awesome blog, keep up the good stuff!
    xx
    www.mysterybruises.blogspot.com

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  19. a little valentine's day poem for you...

    saying our final goodbyes to everything that holds us apart

    i don't know what secrets you wear up your sleeve
    but i set my heart on mine for yours to see
    it's not been easy getting used to
    but i'll keep wearing it on the outside just for you
    i'd rather be naked like that than trying to put on someone else's shoes
    i hope you don't mind getting naked like that, too
    so we can search together for the buried treasures that fit just right
    we won't have to prove anything when love is totally eclipsing our sight
    and that's a place i'd be happy to stay in with you
    a place not far away, the treasure map already spelled out the clues
    a timepiece of simple significance, wherever you see the real me, and i see the real you

    donroseonaski 2-14-11

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  20. I like your blog! I follow you..follow me too if you want, I will be happy!
    kiss

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  21. nice :) just like you :)

    see if u like mine too :) @ sidish6.blogspot.com thank you in advance. ;)

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  22. Mary Oliver has been my favorite poet for as long as I can remember - though I haven't read her in years. Thanks for sharing!

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  23. Lionel Milo Nance, 81, was arrested and booked into Davis County Jail on a warrant for sexually assaulting a child.

    Nance was booked into the jail Thursday morning on suspicion of committing three counts of rape of a child, the aggravated sexual abuse of a child and one count of sodomy upon a child.

    The 2nd District Court in Farmington, Utah had issued warrants for his arrest on the three rape counts on Tuesday on behalf of the Syracuse Police Department. According to court documents, the offenses occurred on March 26, 1995. His bail is set at more than $400,000.

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