Mary Oliver’s ‘soft animal’

Today’s Prompt: What is your favorite animal?

My favorite animal is the “soft animal” that Mary Oliver wrote about in her poem, “Wild Geese.” Maybe you don’t know the poem, but you’ve probably heard the line, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

Isn’t that just perfect?

The first time I read the poem, I instantly felt my soft animal roll through my belly like a warm, slow, viscous wave.

It’s been decades since we first met, but the animal still rolls through me from time to time, reminding me that I am so, so alive.

Here’s Mary Oliver’s poem. -Connie

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 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 (1935-2019)

P.S. This post is part of the 2024 #bloganuary challenge. I can’t write every day this year, as I have the last two years, but I will participate when time allows.