Awakening and Staying Awake  

A Ritual to Read to Each Other by   William Stafford

If you don't know the kind of person I am

And I don't know the kind of person you are

Then a pattern that others have made

Will prevail in the world.

And following the wrong Gods home

We may each miss our own star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,

A shrug that lets the fragile sequence break,

sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood

storming out through the broken dike.

And so just as elephants parade

Each elephant holding the others tail,

If one wanders,

the entire circus will not find the park.

I call it cruel,

And maybe the root of all cruelty,

To know what occurs

And not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,

A remote important region in all who talk,

Though we could fool each other,

we should consider,

Lest the parade of our mutual lives

Gets lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people remain awake.

Or, a breaking line may discourage us all back to sleep.

The signals we give,

Yes, or no, or maybe, should be clear,

For the darkness around us is deep

Please send your comments to Andreas Agiorgitis. This document was updated 7/23/2003.