Oct 22, 2015 / Inspiration

Running Wild

When writing inspires us to find our place in the world.

While Mary Oliver is a well-known poet — in fact, we’ve quoted her before on the Daily Post — she’s still new to me. By sheer coincidence, her famous poem, “Wild Geese,” popped up in my inbox, blog reader, and Twitter feed multiple times over the past few months. Perhaps it was one of those seeming proofs of collective consciousness, but as I kept re-reading her words, I fell in love more deeply with the poem.

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, Wild Geese

I’m also working my way through Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a collection of folk tales that explore womanhood, intuition, and our relationship to nature from a Jungian perspective. I revisited “Wild Geese” after reading the chapter on “The Ugly Duckling,” that famed story about a young swan born into the wrong family and struggling to find his place in the world – and, subsequently, his self-worth.

Works like these emphasize feelings of otherness, inadequacy, and isolation, as well as our determination to move past these feelings to find where we belong. Today, take inspiration from Mary Oliver and tell us, what is your place in the family of things? If you are lonely, do you hear the wild geese? If you are surrounded by your metaphorical kin, how have you announced your place in the world?

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  1. Fowl Play…

    Mary Oliver’s famed fowl, Wild Geese, have been dropping in on Facebook with great regularity.
    A week doesn’t fly by without a winged reference to her poem.

    Mary does “do it for me…

    But, Billy Collins -no fly by night- soars high in the stratosphere of my enrapt attention.

    See: My Love Affair with Billy Collins

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I’m reading your blog and I also just start reading Women Who Run With the Wolves! this is confirmation I’m heading in the right direction towards finding more of myself. Thank you!

    Liked by 3 people

  8. In our religion, Islam , if we feel lonely, if we feel sad, if we feel not good, we have to remember our God, Allah… With remember Allah, the heart will calm.

    Liked by 3 people

  11. I have not only red “women who run with the wolves”, I have used it, tried to understand it, and my copy of it is ragged. But this was ten years ago and maybe it is time to revisit 🙂 Thanks for inspiration!

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  16. I admire. You have decrypted Mary Oliver’s “WILD GEESE” in your way. You have inspired almost all through your pen post. For a while, you even put on a THINKING CAP on me.’ @Erica

    Liked by 2 people

  22. I find art, writing and reading calming when I’m angry or had a bad day. I also like taking photos and making layouts and posters

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  28. Writing, a skill that can only be learnt through practice. However, it’s a unique skill because it can also help you grow as a person by taking a *snapshot* of who you are at the time of writing. I’ve just started writing publicly on my personal blog and I do believe that writing helps you grow and inspires both the writers and readers. Feel free to have a look and share my thoughts too. Let’s inspire each other: http://www.seekandreach.com

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  30. i am so inspired by this ! i am new to wordpress I’m just a college student but i know i want to pursue journalism! i want to gain more confidence in my writing as well as familiarize myself with more vocabulary. if anyone can leave nice tips and help inspire me i would be totalyl grateful and receptive.

    Liked by 1 person