Canada Geese and a literary side trip

The Canada Geese have been flocking in huge numbers all around the area. It is hard to believe that prior to 1950, the only geese Ohioans saw were migratory winter visitors. Today, as some our the more astute readers may have noticed, we have quite a few resident geese. While many people call Canada Geese 'sky rats' or 'flying carp' and view them mainly as a nuisance, it's hard to deny that there is something truly soul-awakening about a formation of geese flying across a winter landscape. So enjoy the flocks this winter and don't forget to look up when you hear the beat of wings across the snowy sky. Now, for your winter literary pleasure, here's one of my very favorite poems:

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.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver