My dear friend, Frank, performed this poem at a poetry reading in a small, quasi-seedy club in Cambridge that we frequented together. I've been drawing inspiration from it lately, though I'm still trudging through the "wild night" at this point. I wish you could hear him perform it, but posting the text will have to do until he gets back to Boston and I can get him to recite it on camera.
The Journey
by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
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4 comments:
That was really neat...okay lame word choice, but tell me you know what I mean. I enjoyed it!
Thanks Mere!
I loved that Meredith. It's really all any of us can do, and you do that and more, much more. You're the best!
I realized upon reading this how not poetic I am. I understand poetry for the most part, but when I think that someone wrote that then I think that the original thoughts I've got going through my head are pretty lame.
Beautiful and true. Thanks for sharing.
Wow "the only life you could save"
This is a stunning piece. It probably rings true for a lot of us. Thanks for posting it.
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