William Stafford: "Adrift"

Let my dreams while I’m wide-awake
loose. Let me be drowned, baptized,
in the light given me. Day comes around,
night, fall, winter, spring,
summer. Leaves overhead, underfoot.
Waves arrive, buffets from friends
offended, enemies. Let it all come:
this is my way, this is the canoe I’m in.

"Adrift" by William Stafford, from The Answers Are Inside the Mountain: Meditations on the Writing Life, edited by Paul Merchant and Vincent Wixon (University of Michigan Press, 2003).

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer.