Oh lordy, this is in my top ten favorite poems of all times. The backstory is that Wagoner created this poem around some instructions a Pacific Northwest Native American (can remember which tribe right now) elder gave to a young man heading out into wilderness on his adolescent rite of passage.
I love "Lost" so much I've almost-memorized it at least 3 or 4 times.
Did I say how much I love this poem? I've been lost so many times. How reassuring to know that TRULY getting lost just can't happen if we breathe, and trust the ground we're standing on.
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
~ David Wagoner ~
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
~ David Wagoner ~
(Riverbed)
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