April is Poetry Month--a poem for each day we are open

Ukiah Poem of the Day for National Poetry Month
April 11, 2009

Se dice/ It is said

que el drbol
lo reconoce su fruta
that you know a tree
by its fruit.
El ave,
or us plumas
a bird by its feathers
y el aqua
and water
quizds por lo que lleva
encima de sus corrientes
perhaps by what it carries
on its currents
El viento, asi mismo
the wind likewise,
por el rastro de lo que trae.
by the scent of what it brings.
La primavera,
Spring
por el brote
for blossom
y el verano
and Summer,
su follje espesisimo
en el calido atardecer
its foliage
thickest on hot after noons.
El otono por cosecha,
su borra y deshoje
Autumn, for the harvest,
its dregs, and the fall
y el invierno
and Winter
no tanto por sus quejas,
berrinches y tormentas
not so much for its whining,
tantrums, and storms
sino como el hombre
but like man
por su vacio
for his emptiness
y silencios indiferentes
and indifferent silences

Jabez Churchill



Willits Library National Poetry Month Poem of the Day – April 11, 2009


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 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.