one or two things, starfish, the journey, the turtle, in blackwater woods

the one about the butterfly

“The butterfly’s loping flight… frenzied and aimless…perfectly/ lazy, riding motionless in the breeze”

the one about now and forever

“he said, and now/ and never once mentioned forever”

the one about what you need

“one or two things are all you need… some deep/ memory of pleasure, some cutting/ knowledge of pain”

the one about too much

“don’t love your life/ too much”

the one about willing to be afraid

“what i wanted/ was to draw my hands back… what i wanted/ was to be willing/ to be afraid./ But I stayed there”

the stanza about loving what is easy

“what good does it do/ to lie all day in the sun/ loving what is easy?/ it never grew easy/ but at last i grew peaceful… my fear diminished”

the one about loving our world

“learning/ little by little to love /our only world.”

the one where you knew what to do

“One day you finally knew/ what you had to do, and began”

the one with the shouting voices

“Mend my life!/ each voice cried.”

the one where you left the voices behind

‘But little by little/ as you left their voices behind… there was a new voice/ which you slowly/ recognised as your own”

the one where you were determined

“determined to do/ the only thing you could do/ determined to save/ the only life you could save”

the one about what she was born to do

“she doesn’t consider/ what she was born to do./ She’s only filled/ with an old blind wish”

the one where she cant be separate from the world

“she can’t see/ herself apart from the rest of the world… she doesn’t dream/ she knows/ she is a part of the pond she lives in… tied to her by an unbreakable string”

the stanza about the three things to do

“To live in this world/ you must be able/ to do three things/ to love what is mortal/ to hold it/ against your bones knowing… when the time comes to let it go/ to let it go.”