HERE YOU DO NOT dare to dictate terms.
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Forget despair; it’s no concern of rocks or earth.
Inheritors? The Academy or the worms.
Amnesty—to change your mind and help you live …
To douse the light that will not let you sleep?
Listen to your neighbors, hear them weep.
Take a breath—exhale—and then forgive.
Were you crippled in your youth by some assault?
Or did a mother’s unconcern undo you?
What did you do? Or was it done to you?
Precisely whose the innocence, whose the fault?
The day is long; the grounds are wide and white.
There’s time enough—correct your lingering errors.
Wander, learn; domesticate your terrors.
Choose tranquil blindness or an anxious sight.
I, Wolf Walker, welcome you as guest.
Check your rage, self-pity at the door.
Here you’ll learn to live or die—and more—
You’ll learn the truth: that one of them is best.
Here the snowy peace from dawn till night
Cancels every debt—yet all will pay.
Even the aging, poor, generous God
Who gives again all he has to give: a day.