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Only One Voice
Jessica Powers
Only one voice,
but it was singing
and the words danced and as they danced held high--
oh, with what grace!--their lustrous bowls of joy.
Even in dark we knew they danced, but we--
none of us--touched the hem of what would happen.
Somewhere around a whirl, swirl, a pirouette,
the bowls flew and and spilled,
and we were drenched, drenched to the dry bone
in our miserable night.
Only one voice,
but morning lay awake in her bed and listened,
and then was out and racing over the hills
to hear and see.
And water and light and air and the tall trees
and people, young and old, began to hum
the catchy, catchy tune.
And everyone danced, and everyone, everything,
even the last roots of the doddering oak
believed in life
The
Journey
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.
