West Wind #2
You are young. So you know everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me.
Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.
Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen
to me.
There is life without love. It is not worth a bent
penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of adead dog nine days unburied.
When you hear, a mile
away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks – when you hear that unmistakable pounding – when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls
plunging and steaming – then row, row for your life toward it.”