Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Return

I've just returned from my travels and am preparing a lengthy post about my time overseas. In the meantime, a friend sent me this Mary Oliver poem and there is much here with which to sit and chew. Enjoy!

West Wind #2

You are young. So you know everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me. Without fanfare, without embarassment, without any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me. Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and your heart, and heart's little intelligence, and listen to me.

There is no life without love. It is not worth a bent penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks -- when you hear the unmistakable pounding -- when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and steaming -- then row, row for your life toward it.

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