“Het mooiste gedicht” (Facebook) brengt elke dag een nieuw werk van dichters wereldwijd. Ik sla geen dag over. Soms wordt ik geraakt, soms gaat het vluchtig aan me voorbij. Heel af en toe ga ik om.
“Wild Geese” van Mary Oliver nam me mee en liet me niet meer los.
De wereld die zich aan je openbaart; niet omdat het moet, maar omdat je er deel van bent. Deel van de dingen. Ik lees het nogmaals, nogmaals en nogmaals en voorzichtig ga ik het aan.
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.
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)
"Never die"
2025
olie-board
40-50 cm
