"Dogfish" and Dogfish Head

I wanted
the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
   where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
   I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,
whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

...


You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it's the same old story––
a few people just trying;
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind...



// "Dogfish," Mary Oliver