You Do Not Have To

Let the swell of what is most true spill from you not as a tsunami, but a bayou.

I recently finished Mary Oliver’s Devotions, which feels like a surprisingly big accomplishment because I’d been reading it consistently for about three years, just a poem or two at a time each morning with my coffee. I knew before starting it that this was a book I was going to want to savor slowly.

Wild Geese has been my favorite poem for a long time. I’ve read it so many times I have it memorized. The opening line, “You do not have to be good,” often echoes around in my head like a church bell. When I wrote this poem, I was thinking about that opening line and all the things we convince ourselves we have to do before we’re allowed to be happy.

While there are certainly many good reasons why someone should, in fact, burn it all to the ground, what I was interested in exploring in this poem was the possibility that we sometimes mistake a new life for a new self. Wherever you go, there you are kind of thing. What I’m trying to say is maybe a beautiful life is made by paying closer attention to the one you’re already living.

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Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read this poem. If you enjoyed it, let me know by dropping a comment or sharing it. Your support means the absolute world to me. :)

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P.S. If you haven’t yet, my debut collection The Size of Your Joy is available anywhere books are sold. Today’s featured poem, You Do Not Have To, is from my book on page 104. :)

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💌 Is mail + poetry your love language? Mine too! You might like my Poem Postcard Club. Check it out below. Also makes a thoughtful gift for your poetry + mail loving friends. :)

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