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 it's 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 stode deeper and deeper into the world

determined to do

the only thing you could do

determined to save

the only life you could save.

              --Mary Oliver

 ^6-12 As I stood at the window of my house
   looking out through the shutters,
Watching the mindless crowd stroll by,
   I spotted a young man without any sense
Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived,
   then turning up the path to her house.
It was dusk, the evening coming on,
   the darkness thickening into night.
Just then, a woman met him—
   she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.
Brazen and brash she was,
   restless and roaming, never at home,
Walking the streets, loitering in the mall,
   hanging out at every corner in town.

 ^13-20 She threw her arms around him and kissed him,
   boldly took his arm and said,
"I've got all the makings for a feast—
   today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
So now I've come to find you,
   hoping to catch sight of your face—and here you are!
I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed,
   colorful imported linens.
My bed is aromatic with spices
   and exotic fragrances.
Come, let's make love all night,
   spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
My husband's not home; he's away on business,
   and he won't be back for a month."

 ^21-23 Soon she has him eating out of her hand,
   bewitched by her honeyed speech.
Before you know it, he's trotting behind her,
   like a calf led to the butcher shop,
Like a stag lured into ambush
   and then shot with an arrow,
Like a bird flying into a net
   not knowing that its flying life is over.

 ^24-27 So, friends, listen to me,
   take these words of mine most seriously.
Don't fool around with a woman like that;
   don't even stroll through her neighborhood.
Countless victims come under her spell;
   she's the death of many a poor man.
She runs a halfway house to hell,
   fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.

King Solomon
the 7th proverb

translation: