Journey

Poetry…beautiful, soul-searching, enchanting, eye-popping, inspirational poetry keeps coming into my life (Silver Lining).

I’ve never been a big poetry fan.  Ok, honestly, I have always had a tendency to avoid it at all costs. Why?  Well, because it has always intimidated me.  Which, I know-I know, is not the fault of the poetry!  Until now, I’ve never been in a place to really listen to it and let it in.

Times are now a changin’…in so many different ways.

Little did I know that poetry has great power.  It has the power to ignite a beautiful fire in life.  It has the power to  change the way we see ourselves and the world. It has the power to alert readers to their intuition.

This poem by Mary Oliver does all of that and more for me.  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

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.

– Mary Oliver