Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

I heard a quote I love and it was taken from this poem. I've asked a couple people what they thought it meant - no replies. I really wanted to know - it was the first four lines. There is something about it I love - where is that or what is that soft animal of your body?

I googled it and this is what I found:

What does this poem mean?

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

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.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker (From Yahoo Answers)

"Well, simply put, its about 1.love, 2.life, and 3. friendship. and how these are the pretty much the ONLY free thing in this world. When Mary Oliver says 'Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.'

Its talking about the magic friendship. When she says 'You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.' She is explaining that these gifts (love, life, & friends) come free. When she says 'You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.' She is talking about love and the freedom of love."

Is love the soft animal of your body and is there freedom in love?

Wouldn't it be wonderful to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves and let everything else go?

But help, that explanation doesn't quite do it for me - what do you think that means?

Love,

Chatty

Happy Birthday Kirk Cameron - Cameron says he was once an atheist, but around age 17 or 18, during the height of his career on Growing Pains, he developed a belief in God, and became a Christian. After converting to Christianity, he began to insist that story lines be stripped of anything he thought too adult or racy in Growing Pains.