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.

-Mary Oliver

Commentary

I remember reading this poem for the first time as a young man, seventeen, beginning to embark on my own journey. I had just met the man who would guide me through my Rite of Passage, and he told me, “In the pursuit of your purpose, you will encounter despair that you have never felt before.” And I did, many times. When I reached those places, it was often the memory of Mary Oliver’s words that gave me the courage to keep walking.

Like many others, I owe Mary Oliver a great debt.