Wild Geese Project

For our composition class this week we were asked to choose a piece of writing (poem, excerpt from a book, song lyrics, etc.) and provide images that were an interpretation of our response to that writing (not an illustration).  The intent was to convey emotional response, not a literal interpretation.  My poem is 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.

This poem was given to me by my good friend Ken when I was starting to decide about leaving my career.  I was feeling very constrained at work and feeling that the corporate world was taking away my spirit.  I didn't finally leave for 5 years, but I kept this poem under the blotter on my desk and it acted as a motivator to keep me moving toward a different path for my life.  The images I'm posting are my interpretation of my feelings during this process.