‘Now I Become Myself’
May Sarton

Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly…
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!…
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

‘The Journey’
Mary Oliver 

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began, 
though the voices around you 
kept shouting
their bad advice -
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen 
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind, 
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds, 
and there was a new voice 
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper 
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do -
determined to save
the only life you could save.

‘Age’
Kay Ryan

As some people age
they kinden.
The apertures
of their eyes widen.
I do not think they weaken;
I think something weak strengthens
until they are more and more it,
like letting in heaven …

‘Delta’
Adrienne Rich

… If you think that you can grasp me, think again:
my story flows in more than one direction
a delta springing from the riverbed
with its five fingers spread.