“Better no personification than bad or foolish personification.”
Mary Oliver, from A Poetry Handbook
The message in my head
from that wise poet
delivered early. I will take it
to my heart with its serious
wild face, my heart so quick
to close its eyes and tuck
its tail round itself into
a snug and dozing circle.
Hibernating now, it’s
slow to rouse, but dreaming
in cold sleep, dreaming
of new roads crossed by so many
other hearts, their wild creature eyes
glinting reflected light, wandering adventures
beneath a huge night sky
swirled with starlight and gold,
the quick and the possible.
