Last night at a dinner party my friend John asked me to send him a poem that had changed my life.  A few years ago he had sent me "The Still Time" by Galway Kinnell, a poem that had changed his life and that he always used when he taught.  I’ve used it since then in my UCLA Extension course "Writing the Healing Story".

I think it’s illegal to quote a whole poem on the Internet without permission from the publisher (Is it? Can anyone tell me for sure?) – In any event I’ll just quote the opening  of "The Still Time":  "I know there is still time – /time for the hands/to open,/to be filled/by those failed harvests,/the imagined bread of the days of not having." 

and then these lines from the middle that are gorgeous and perfect (and shine.):

"as though a prayer had ended/and the changed/air between the palms goes free/to become the glitter/on common things that inexplicably shine."

So all day I’ve been trying to think of poems that have changed my life, or made it easier.  I love John’s question.  It’s given me permission to sit here all afternoon browsing through my favorite poets – Raymond Carver, Maxine Kumin, Billy Collins, Anne Carson, Ted Kooser, et al. And of course Mary Oliver who helps you see the world new. Some lines of her poem "When Death Comes" are words to live by:  "When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder/If I have made of my life something particular, and real./I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,/Or full of argument./ I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world."

Browsing through my own book shelves, I just discovered a wonderful little book called Ten Poems to Change Your Life by Roger Housden. He includes another life changing poem by Mary Oliver, "The Only Life You Can Save".  And also one by Galway Kinnell, "Last Gods", which is simply the sexiest poem I’ve ever read in my life.

But I’m still thinking. And would love to hear from you on this. What writing – poem or story – has changed your life? Let us know. Click on the comment button below.