Desire

So long as I am hanging on

I want to be young and noble.

I want to be bold.

So said the great buck, named Swirler,

as he stepped like a king past me

the week before he was arrow-killed.

And so said the wren in the bush

after another hard year

of love, of nest-life, of singing.

And so say I

every morning, just before sunrise,

wading the edge of the dark ocean.

--Mary Oliver, Redbird, 2008