The Secret
~Denise Levertov

Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.

I who don’t know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me

(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even

what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,

the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can’t find,

and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that

a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines

in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for

assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.

These four syllables have so much attached to them! There’s the initial thrill of learning something new, of finding an idea or piece of information that changes your thinking and way of being in the world; the excitement of, just for a moment, feeling the infinite nature of the universe in your own being.

The blessing—and the challenge—of discovery is that we simply cannot remain the same person, doing the same things, living the same life as before we made the discovery. We are intoxicated by the possibilities and promise of what we have learned, but putting it into practice can be a long, slow process of internal transformation and external change, neither of which go quite as we planned, or as quickly as we hoped.

Discovery can also have a dark side—we discover something about ourselves that we don’t want to admit, or we discover something about another person that radically changes our feelings and opinion of them. The spark in the darkness is that, having made this realization about our character, we can decide what (if anything) to do about it. When we learn something difficult about another person, that, too, gives us an opportunity to reflect on our own behavior and beliefs, and make adjustments as needed.

Keep in mind the words of André Gide: One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.

Trust yourself, trust your process, and keep going.

May your discoveries bring you joy, healing, and growth!

Discovery

You may have noticed that the Daily Draw posts have not appeared this week. I’ve been thinking about my blog, and I want to focus on other types of posts. It’s actually a lot of work to create such a short post, and I’d rather put my time into other kinds of posts. I recommend The Muse’s Darling on Instagram, from the clever and insightful Karen Krebser, if you are looking for a Daily Draw.

The daily Poem for Hela will continue, as that’s an important part of my personal practice that I enjoy sharing, and my readers seem to appreciate it.

I will still share an occasional Daily Draw when something truly interesting or powerful comes up, as it’s still part of my personal work. And sometimes you just stare at the draw and think, “Well, then!” and those need to be shared.

You’ll see new types of posts starting today, May 8, and I hope you enjoy them. Leave a comment on the posts, and let me know what you think!

Substantial Planes
~ A. R. Ammons

It doesn’t
matter

to me
if

poems mean
nothing:

there’s no
floor

to the
universe

and yet
one

walks the
floor.