THE WILD GEESE

In the short poem, “Wild Geese” Mary Oliver starts by staying that you do not have to be good all the time. Everybody makes mistakes so, its okay to make one once in a while. You don’t have to hate yourself every time you make a mistake.  Instead you should repent and ask for forgiveness. We all spend time thinking about our past, so basically you’re wasting your time feeling sorry, because the world won’t stop and wait for you.The wild geese may signify a god or a spirit. This “high…clean blue air” may be in reference to Heaven.  Gods were always in Heaven, so the wild geese the poem is referring to probably isn’t a God.  Instead, it may be a spirit returning to Heaven after dying.  Nobody should feel sorry to Earth for living, since we didn’t come to Earth willingly, and we should  feel guiltily about using up the Earth, since the “Earth offers itself to your imagination.” Since we’ve established that wild geese are the spirits of he dead,  when you die, you will return to nature “announcing your place in the family of things” probably means returning to nature, and live on in your afterlife. In short, in this poem Mary Oliver is trying to say we should live our lives to fullest potential, live without regrets, follow your instincts, and enjoy Earth’s resources, because your afterlife will have much more significance in the world than your physical life.