What I Found in Today's Poetry Readings

As part of my Poetry III class, it's my job not to just write poetry, but read it too. I found this today in a wonderful poetry collection called "Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times". It's called "The Journey" by Mary Oliver, quickly becoming one of my favorite poets:

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 know 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.

Isn't she absolutely the greatest? With such simple words, she tells you a story of an awakening self-journey. I think she proves you don't have to be in an extreme of happiness or sadness for a poem to impact you, if you let it.