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.
from Dream Work (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986).
The poem reads like someone remembering the exact moment they finally chose their own life, even with every voice around them pulling them back. It captures that deeply human struggle of trying to move forward while the world and sometimes the people you love beg you to stay where you’ve always been. The storm imagery makes the resistance feel real: the trembling house, the wind clawing at you, the road full of debris. But what makes the poem so touching is how the shift happens slowly, almost quietly, as the old voices fade and your own begins to rise. The stars breaking through the clouds feel like the first signs of self‑trust returning. It’s a reminder that listening to yourself can feel lonely at first, but it’s the only way to truly step into your own life. In the end, the poem becomes a gentle but firm truth: you can only save the life that is yours to live.
Mary Oliver really never misses huh?? No one can turn people to inward reflection and outward attention (the perfect prayer) better than she can imo!
Sidenote, I wrote an analysis of it once … wherever could one read that I wonder.. https://jeskehulst.substack.com/p/the-journey-of-becoming?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4220es