poetry week, day 6: the end (for now)

I can feel Poetry Week winding itself down, so here's one more to close it out. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't continue to post poems now and then. It just means that posts will have a different title, I guess.

A number of people commented on both the NY Times site and here that "If" is the poem they try to live by. I would not argue at all with the sentiment, but... well, ironic as it may be, I need my mantra poem to be a little less wordy. Luckily there's a perfect one. Thanks go to the Magic Lady in Atlanta for introducing me to this one a while ago. As far as I know it's untitled.

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom
goes on as fruit.
~Dawna Markova