The Stand Still (a Mary Oliver Copy Change)

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Rosemerry Wahtolha Trommer once told me if it’s true, the opposite is also true. That inspired me to try this take on Mary Oliver’s The Journey. Enjoy!


THE STAND STILL

Everyday you really don’t know

what you have to do and you stop,

though the voices within you

keep whispering

their good advice—

Though part of the house

ceases to tremble,

and you feel the new-nothing tug

at your spine.

“Break your death!”

Each voice exhales.

But you don’t move.

You don’t know what you have to do

though the water seeps

with all its twinkling toes

through the very foundations.

Though their joy

is delighting.

It is not yet late

enough, and a calm day

and your chair, empty of fallen

leaves and sand.

And leap by leap,

as you bring your voices in closer,

the stars soften their burn

over the cloudless clear

and there is the oldest voice there ever was

which impulsively you

mistake as your own

that abandons you

as you stay further and further

away from the world,

uncertain about doing

the many things you could do,

uncertain to extinguish 

the only life you’ve ever known. 


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