you and i

  

.

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.

—William Stafford
ask me 

.