It felt a little existential to decide the first poem that goes into the poetry box. And while I have lists and lists of things I want to include, I knew I wanted to begin with Mary Olivers’s perennial favorite, “Wild Geese.” It’s the poem I’d be most likely to tattoo on my inner arm (“soft animal” read the temporary tattoo I received from Firefly Creative Writing a few years ago and that I hold out as the perfect post-pandemic first ink). It’s the one my friends who aren’t big readers of poetry always love. It’s the one that Oliver herself said came to her as if a prayer, a bit of divine intercession. It will always be one of my favorites. You can hear her reading it and other poems on Krista Tippett’s On Being website.
“You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”