Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night
-The Beatles
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| by soundlessfall on flickr |
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The Journey
-by Mary Oliver
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.
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| by LISgirl on flickr |
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I happened across this poem in a magazine I have never read. I only picked it up from the stand because it had a poetry focus, and because I love words, I couldn't resist.
Reading through the magazine offered me several inspirational moments, a couple of epiphanies, and then an extended episode of bird wings fluttering against the bars of my ribcage. This poem reminds me that I have to listen to my own voice. I'm not saying I've decided to stop listening to the voices around me, but I've come to the point --- they've come to the point --- where they can find their bliss themselves. They can be responsible for their own happiness. I love my children. I love my grandchildren. I love my husband, my parents, my siblings. I will do everything within my power to contribute to their success, their happiness.
Everything except deny my own.
I have to open the door to my cage, and fly. It's up to me to figure out exactly how.
Spread your own wings, travelers.
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