Lost - By David Wagoner
LOST – By DAVID WAGONER
David Wagoner - Chair of Poetry at the University of Washington
Stand Still…
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
Listen…the forest breathes…
it whispers I have made this place around you…
if you leave it you may come back again
Saying Here…here
No two trees are the same to raven…
no two bushes the same to wren
If what a tree or branch does is lost on you ,
then you are surely lost
Stand still…the forest knows where you are
You must let it find you.
This poem in its original form is often recited by the poet David White. Speaking about its depth he says
“This is a poem on the matter of ‘waking up’ and saving our lives. The poem is in the form of a story given by an old native American elder. A story handed down from generation to generation. The kind of story an elder would tell to a young girl or boy whose own life somehow depended on the question – ‘what do I do when I am lost in the forest?’
This poem has three qualities implicit in it …three qualities which we might use when approaching the depth of meaning. The first is this tremendous silence – tangible…that what is asked for by the elder is silence
The second quality is an ‘Attention ‘ that is asked for…a tremendous attention on the world…such that one is asked to go out of ones ordinary everyday view of the world.
And the third quality is that the question itself is turned on it’s head. The question ‘what do I do when I..I am lost in the forest’ is not the question at all …the elder says ‘you don’t even know who you are…the forest will tell you who you are. We can see this in our state of consciousness we can see it in very practical terms also…when we look deeply and we learn the ways and the truth of the ‘forest’ then wherever we are we are at home…that’s the practical level and on the consciousness level it’s an asking to give out…forget yourself to find yourself” To forget ourselves does not mean to abandon ourselves it means to drop all the ideas about “I am this and I am like this. This is a stranglehold that we cant find our true freedom. When we feel lost we panic and grasp onto anything that is there that makes us momentarily feel secure.
We practice this poem as the elders still encourage us to do ….
Stand Still…
stand still the trees ahead and
bushes beside you are not lost
Wherever you are is called here
This is an excerpt from a teaching offered by the poet David White.