Ask Me

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