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The Journey

The Journey

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,
“mend my life, mend my life,
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 the 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 thin 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
that you could do,
determined to save the only life
that you could save.

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