Poetry Branch

I found an O magazine a few weeks ago and have been slowly leafing through it reading one wonderful article after another. This issue touches on poetry and the article I'm reading right now, a poet named Mary Oliver is interviewed, a women I would suddenly like to know more about. They've published one of her poems in the article, something that speaks to a deeper me each time I read it.

If anyone has battled with negative self talk or tried turning their days from dark to light, this poem may speak to you too.

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 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.