Wild Geese ( After Mary Oliver )

Wow this is phenomenal!👏👏
Such a profoundly powerful piece of poetry well done!
"So, why do you try so hard to understand    
what cannot be understood by anyone –    
except in relation to personal perception  
and spiritual evolution?" Wowo thats deep and a perfectly stated profound question of which i don't have an answer to nevertheless this is awesome great write!👏

Thank you, Hunter!

As being someone who almost drowned once, I feel the calm assurance in your tone that everything will be okay when the struggle to survive is given up.  

This is stellar writing and you are really tapped into Oliver.

💜💏💋

Thank you, Sweetheart.  You always get it.  💜💑💋

In the stanza
In the foreign legion of womb    
you inhaled amniotic fluid    
knowing it sustained growth.

I think that I see what you are getting at here, but I also wondered about the use of "knowing", as a foetus does not necessarily know anything, at least not in a 'knowing' way that we are accustomed to.  Perhaps something like "scaffolding for sustained growth" or "baking beads for sustained growth".  My shaky and think knowledge of amniotic fluid might be showing here.

In stanza
No one taught you to that –
to hold your breath in the birth canal
or your first bath;  you just knew  
water would retrieve your life –    
then every labor you pained being born    
would’ve been in vain.    

the first line seems to have a missing word between "to" and "that", or perhaps it is a mis-wording of "... that to you"

Also, did you mean to type "retrieve your life"?  With the word "retrieve", I am unsure of the meaning of this line.

in the final line of that stanza, "would've" did not seem right to my novice-ear, and "would have" feels better.

In the penultimate stanza, the line "into the still pond of a bath or ocean", "still pond" appears to apply to both the bath and the ocean.   Whilst "still pond" is good for the bath, it seems incongruous for the ocean - unless it's for the deep ocean.

Overall, I enjoyed this poem's expression of its theme and ideas.  And I particularly enjoyed its final stanza.

"In the stanza  
In the foreign legion of womb   
you inhaled amniotic fluid   
knowing it sustained growth.  
 
I think that I see what you are getting at here, but I also wondered about the use of "knowing", as a foetus does not necessarily know anything, at least not in a 'knowing' way that we are accustomed to.  Perhaps something like "scaffolding for sustained growth" or "baking beads for sustained growth".  My shaky and think knowledge of amniotic fluid might be showing here."    
. . .  
 
But we do know when in the womb - I believe, and have witnessed infants interacting with beings I can't see. I have also heard stories, especially those of my own grandson  ( among other children ) when barely two, of seeing people in the room, and remembering what happened to him in a previous life.  
 
You are right in that a foetus does not necessarily know anything, at least not in a 'knowing' way that we are accustomed to.  I believe we're born fully knowing what we spent our lives trying to know once we're older and forget. But that's just me.  
 
~~~~~  
 
"In stanza  
No one taught you to that –  
to hold your breath in the birth canal  
or your first bath;  you just knew    
water would retrieve your life –   
then every labor you pained being born   
would’ve been in vain.   
 
the first line seems to have a missing word between "to" and "that", or perhaps it is a mis-wording of "... that to you"  
 
Also, did you mean to type "retrieve your life"?  With the word "retrieve", I am unsure of the meaning of this line.  
 
in the final line of that stanza, "would've" did not seem right to my novice-ear, and "would have" feels better."  
. . .  
 
Good catch; I have inserted the missing "to", and corrected the would have. I typically don't use contractions in my current poetry - that was probably out of habit. Thanks for both those catches.  
 
In regards to retrieve, if taken with the entire stanza - it means exactly that: retrieve your life, aka, you'll drown if you breathe bath water etc, despite having breathed amniotic fluid. How do babies know not to breath liquid after breathing it for 9 months? How do they "know" to hold their breath and swim when born into water vs. inhaling it as they have done for 9 months?  Who taught them that? It's fascinating, the human instinct, and what it knows at any age, even a forming fetus.  Just like certain animals instinctively know how to hunt and survive without being taught.  
 
I will think upon the stanza and see if there's a more efficient way to convey the meaning into a better understanding, but I did intend to use retrieving.  
_____  
 
In the penultimate stanza, the line "into the still pond of a bath or ocean", "still pond" appears to apply to both the bath and the ocean.   Whilst "still pond" is good for the bath, it seems incongruous for the ocean - unless it's for the deep ocean.  
. . .  
 
Diving deeply is exactly what I meant, just as sinking deeply into a bath.  I'll have a think on it and see what transpires.  
 
_____  
 
Overall, I enjoyed this poem's expression of its theme and ideas.  And I particularly enjoyed its final stanza.  
. . .  
 
Thank you; I very much appreciate the time and attention to details of your critique.

After re-reading, I replaced pond with depth - that should clarify it a bit.  I considered it before pond; however, wasn't certain depth would apply to a bath.    
 
As a matter of fact, I replaced ocean with pond - I like the assonance of o and consonance of n better - despite ocean having both - pond seems to fit better with formed and knowing.

Incredible! Very deep, philosophical, and interesting. Great job!

Thank you, NewBeginnings.  If you like Oliver I hope you give the comp a go.  📝

i literally put my hand over my heart when read your final stanza

"All you have to do is listen to the drum
of blood in your ear when submerged
into the still depth of a bath or pond
where language opens the memory
of being formed already knowing: ..."

i had to feel the drum. awesome write.

Thank you, yelluw.  Much appreciated.