Sometimes - David Whyte

Sometimes

if you move carefully

through the forest,

breathing

like the ones

in the old stories,

who could cross

a shimmering bed

of leaves

without a sound,

you come

to a place

whose only task

is to trouble you

with tiny

but frightening

requests,

conceived out

of nowhere

but in this place

beginning

to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what

you are doing right now,

and

to stop what you

are becoming

while you do it,

questions

that can make

or unmake

a life,

questions

that have patiently

waited for you,

questions

that have no right

to go away.