Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
I’ve used this poem in my health services management class with undergraduates. It has been very effective in stimulating introspection about life-as-career-as-life; it has helped our discussions about the role of work vis-a-vis the rest of our lives.
I would highly recommend it.
I LOVE THIS POEM!
i want lrn will staford
Ask me if the life I am living is the life that is in me…ask me if I have been true to my design…to my heart…ask me, so that I might be challenged to sit and consider…and raise once again the banner that is to be my unique identity…and having come once again to me I allow myself to reenter the river of life full of a million little waves and drops who make it alive…
what a great poem
After everything else has stilled (the river) reflect – some of if not most of our mistakes are not of our own making – i think.