Re: Two KO relevant poems---by Oliver

[Guest guest]

Those are beautiful . Thanks for sharing them. I'm not sure who

Oliver is, but she writes wonderful poetry!

Mia

[Guest guest]

Those are lovely. I've been enjoying all the poems posted here over the last

few weeks, they really speak to the KO experience.

-Annie

>

> I've posted these two wonderful poems by Oliver on here before,but

they're always worth a re-post

>

> The first poem is a " going NC " poem and the second one is about moving

on....

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>

>

> " The Journey "

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>

>

> One day you finally knew

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> what you had to do, and began,

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> though the voices around you

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> kept shouting

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> their bad advice--

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> though the whole house

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> began to tremble

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> and you felt the old tug

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> at your ankles.

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> " Mend my life! "

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> each voice cried.

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> But you didn't stop.

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> You knew what you had to do,

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> though the wind pried

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> with its stiff fingers

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> at the very foundations,

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> though their melancholy

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> was terrible.

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> It was already late

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> enough, and a wild night,

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> and the road full of fallen

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> branches and stones.

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> But little by little,

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> as you left their voices behind,

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> the stars began to burn

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> through the sheets of clouds,

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> and there was a new voice

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> which you slowly

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> recognized as your own,

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> that kept you company

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> as you strode deeper and deeper

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> into the world,

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> determined to do

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> the only thing you could do--

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> determined to save

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> the only life you could save.

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> " Wild Geese "

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> You do not have to be good.

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> You do not have to walk on your knees

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> for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

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> You only have to let the soft animal of your body

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> love what it loves.

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> Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

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> Meanwhile the world goes on.

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> Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

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> are moving across the landscapes,

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> over the prairies and the deep trees,

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> the mountains and the rivers.

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> Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

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> are heading home again.

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> Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

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> the world offers itself to your imagination,

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> calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

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> over and over announcing your place

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> in the family of things.

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>

> --

>