Transitioning From Level 3 to Level 4 in Poetry by Mary Oliver

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 wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by lilttle,

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 new world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do-

determined to save

the only life you could save.

                        --Mary Oliver