Philip Levine Quote

Let Me Begin Again Let me begin again as a speckof dust caught in the night windssweeping out to sea. Let me beginthis time knowing the world issalt water and dark clouds, the worldis grinding and sighing all night, and dawncomes slowly and changes nothing. Letme go back to land after a lifetimeof going nowhere. This time lodgedin the feathers of some scavenging gullwhite above the black ship that docksand broods upon the oily waters ofyour harbor. This leaking freighterhas brought a hold full of hayforksfrom Spain, great jeroboams of darkAlgerian wine, and quill pens that can’twrite English. The sailors have stumbledoff toward the bars of the bright houses.The captain closes his log and falls asleep.1/10’28. Tonight I shall enter my lifeafter being at sea for ages, quietly,in a hospital named for an automobile.The one child of millions of childrenwho has flown alone by the starsabove the black wastes of moonless watersthat stretched forever, who has turnedgolden in the full sun of a new day.A tiny wise child who this time will lovehis life because it is like no other.