Wild Geese

Oh Mary

I’ve been pulling at a rope for a long time

Can you tell me, are there just as many colors on the other side

Now even after you're gone, the wild geese fly home

These days

In the winter when I can’t get out of bed

But the sunsets, before I ever could get dressed

These days I’m so damn blue

Tell me is this living too

There you go telling me I’m not to blame when I am

And the eye you go telling me it’s all the same

Is there anyone out there willing to take the weight

Oh mama

Iv been walking through the desert on my knees

Trying to stay sane, I sing the ballad of the living things

Tell me of despair

The things I cant see and hear

Are they really there?

I used to believe your love pulled the sun back up

In the morning time

Over the mountain side

If I cant talk to you at least now I can see

And if I cant talk to you at least now I can breath

The day Mary Oliver passed away, I re-listened to her interview on the show onbeing - that’s where I got this excerpt of her reading "wild geese." I love this poem so much and it has always felt like it was there for me to re-discover whenever I needed its wisdom. I walked around the lake in Austin listening to her voice and imagining her patient steps along the Massachusetts coastline, observing her world with such grace and empathy. I came home and wrote this song and it is one of my all-time favorites because I know it is not just mine. It comes from thoughts and memories, from shared experience, from the wisdom of our poets and elders, and the imagination of the child inside of all of us. This video comes from footage I took two years ago in New Mexico with friends and family. This recording comes from the help of my dear friends in Austin, in particular Spencer Garland, who helped me record it in his home studio during the pandemic.