The Journey
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.
Mary Oliver
from Dream Work