Ocean By Olav H. Hauge

Ocean 

by Olav H. Hauge

This is the ocean.

Vast and gray,

gravity itself.

Yet just as the mind

in solitary moments

suddenly opens

its shifting reflections

to secret depths---

so the ocean

one blue morning

can open itself

to sky and solitude.

See, the ocean gleams,

I, too, have stars

and blue depths.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Don't Come to Me With the Entire Truth

by Olav H. Hauge

Don't come to me with the entire truth.

Don't bring the ocean if I feel thirsty,

nor heaven if I ask for light;

but bring a hint, some dew, a particle,

as birds carry drops away from a lake,

and the wind a grain of salt.

From: "The Dream We Carry" Selected and Last Poems of Olav H. Hauge

Translated by Robert Bly and Robert Hedin