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.