an introductory poem
and introducing me! (featuring Mary Oliver and my thoughts on poetry)
Poetry has always been one of my favorite ways to introduce myself. Whether through classroom icebreaker or casual conversation, if I can find a way to get around to talking about poetry, whether about my favorite poet (Mary Oliver) or my personal poetry journey (which I’m certain I will eventually discuss), I can tap into something where I feel safe as a creative individual and far freer than I do in other creative mediums.
Poetry is how we speak the unspeakable, declare love without saying “I love you,” and dream without closing our eyes. It is all that and so much more. Many people very close to me who do not read or write poetry dismiss entirely their ability to do either, which I’ve always found quite surprising. I think everyone has a poet deep within themselves, some part of them dying to express some feeling or sense of yearning in a way they may not know how to yet.
For those reading who may be poets themselves, I wonder if you have a poem you’d pick to introduce yourself with. Perhaps there’s one you always come back to for it’s wordplay. Perhaps it brings you comfort. Perhaps its themes resonate with you. Whatever that reason may be for you, the poem I always go to when introducing myself with a poem is “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver.
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.
“Wild Geese” is one of those poems that ticks off all of my personal boxes. Unity with nature. Freedom in love. Embracing self-acceptance. I feel as though this poem is reading me as I read it, telling me all the things I’ve felt before as I feel them again now. All of it’s there, and much more that I will probably pick up a year from now when I look back on my thoughts on it.
I think an interesting prompt you could take from this poem is:
Write a poem where you liken yourself or another human being to an animal. How do you, as that animal, relate to the natural world?
What animal would you choose for this prompt? To answer it myself, I’m rather fond of likening people to deer (or variations of deer, such as fawns) in my poetry. Additionally, I’m very curious to hear what poems other creators on here would choose as their own “introductory poems.” Feel free to comment yours if one comes to mind!
I look forward to sharing more content on bloom scrolling, and thanks for checking out my first post!