This one just feels so right for the first days of Lent, don't you think?
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.
(Read the whole poem here.)
~~~~~
The roundup today is at Reading to the Core.
13 comments:
Yes, this is a perfect way to begin the Lenten season.
I never tire of reading her words! "As you strode deeper and deeper Into the world," Thanks, Karen
Yes, such a beautiful poem for the start of pretty much anything. Thank you! xo
I do love this one. Thank you!
I love this one too.
Yes. And, I think for me, a lent of the age I am now.
One of my favorite Mary Oliver poems!
Yes to following that inner voice, thanks for sharing Mary Oliver's poem Karen!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful, wise poem. I love these lines:
And there was a new voice,
Which you slowly
Recognized as your own,
That kept you company
Exactly!
Maybe the first days of Lent, but maybe also a teacher on Friday after long week at school spent with fifth graders who are steeped in pre-spring/pre-teen drama in every believable and unbelievable form...
Oh, Mary Lee, my sympathies! :) My daughter is student teaching this semester (5th grade) and I'll have to ask her if she agrees. :)
Thanks to the rest of you, too, for stopping by and sharing in the Oliverian beauty. I agree with you all that this one works for all kinds of beginnings. It's so lovely.
This poem always makes me wonder what the "what you had to do" is -- and makes me marvel that each reader answers that question for him or herself.
Yes, I love that, too, Laura. :) I know that, for me, the "what you had to do" has been very different at different times in my life.
Hey, just saw your name yesterday in the acknowledgments of The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden. Ramona and I read it together, aloud, and thoroughly enjoyed it (as well as the first Vanderbeeker book.)
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