The Journey - Mary Oliver

Submitted by Trinity Bourne on 9 May, 2009 - 20:11
    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."

    Mary Oliver “The Journey"

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