What the Body Loves

I've been fascinated by geese since I moved to Ohio in 1987 and first saw Canada Geese.  I liked their regal bearing, their large size.  I've since run across the goose as an archetype or symbol in a lot of literature.  The goose that laid the golden egg is a story element that originated with the cosmic or world egg, which separated to become the earth, sun, and moon. 

The image of the goose is primordial to me; it is symbolic to me of the deepest aspect of the imagination. When I touch that place, I feel a sense of completeness.  

This poem by Mary Oliver describes how I often feel when I write.  It is a returning to my "animal self," that part of me that's wild, elemental.  Oliver says that to have a divine moment "You do not have to walk on your knees...repenting./You only have to let the soft animal of your body/love what it loves."

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.

When you write, let your body love what it loves, and write that.