This Week's Prompt: Nature's Answer

William Stafford wrote this poem:

Ask Me

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.

—William Stafford

Respond to this poem or write a similar one. What in nature would you want to answer a question about the mistakes you have made? If not this question, what question would you have someone ask, and how would nature (lightning, beehive, trout brook, etc.) relate a response?

keywords: poem, answer, [poet's tagging nickname]