[poem] Ask Me

파커 J. 팔머의 책에는 시가 자주 인용된다. 다음은 오늘 읽은 그의 책 <<삶이 내게 말을 걸어올 때>>(홍윤주 옮김, 한문화, 2001)에서 언급된 윌리엄 스태퍼드(1914-1993)의 시 Ask Me.

Ask Me
William Stafford

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.