Poem from 2001

Anonymous Smile

Sometimes I cry

For you

I never got to know

You touched my life

Through a friendly face down the block

At a time when nobody would

Through a smile

Through a peek at the baby

In my stroller

By a wave to my kids

And by imitating Donald Duck

And then on a cruel day

I saw people carry a coffin

Into your tiny appartment

You were gone

Those days when we moved away

You suffered through hell

And I never took the chance

To invite you

In my home

And in my heart

P.K.

The Journey

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 ~