I know, I know, blog posts should be unique, my own thoughts on things. And yet there are some things that are just so good that they need to be shared, and quotes and such. Mary Oliver is one of those. An amazing poet – she leaves me speechless on occasion with how much she gets the human condition and so eloquently captures it with so few words. She unleashes my mind and my heart. She makes room for me to be more in this world. What a gift she gives. And what a gift she has.
Without further ado –
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
from “Dreamwork” in New and Selected Poems. Beacon Press, Boston , 1992
