I DON'T WANT TO BE DEMURE OR RESPECTFUL

"I don't want to be demure or respectful.
I was that way, asleep, for years.
That way, you forget too many important things.
How the little stones, even if you can't hear them,
   are singing.
How the river can't wait to get to the ocean and
   the sky, it's been there before.
What traveling is that!
It is a joy to imagine such distances.
I could skip sleep for the next hundred years.
There is a fire in the lashes of my eyes.
It doesn't matter where I am, it could be a small room.
The glimmer of gold Bohme saw on the kitchen pot
      was missed by everyone else in the house

Maybe the fire in my lashes is a reflection of that
Why do I have so many thoughts, they are driving me
      crazy.
Why am I always going anywhere, instead of somewhere?
Listen to me or not, it hardly matters.
I'm not trying to be wise, that would be foolish.
I'm just chattering."

                                                - Devotions, Mary Oliver