The Journey - Mary Oliver

I have always loved poetry - not the kind that rhyme, but the kind that make you quiet within, that make you pause...these poems have a different song to sing, only when you are still enough to listen.

This poem is by Mary Oliver, an American poet, who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. I have listened and read this poem so many, many times and I wanted to share it with you.

Maybe, it will sing to you too...

"The Journey

  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.

Hearing the song...

In Peace,

Asha