<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><h2 class="title" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(29, 33, 5); line-height: 21px; "><a class="journal-entry-navigation-current" href="http://www.katietalbott.com/inspiration/2010/11/22/each-moment-a-white-bull-steps-shining-into-the-world.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(29, 33, 5); font-weight: normal;"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">Each Moment a White Bull Steps Shining into the World</font></a></h2><div class="body" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(29, 29, 15); line-height: 21px; "><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">If the gods bring to you<br>a strange and frightening creature,<br>accept the gift<br>as if it were one you had chosen. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">Say the accustomed prayers,<br>oil the hooves well,<br>caress the small ears with praise. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">Have the new halter of woven silver<br>embedded with jewels.<br>Spare no expense, pay what is asked,<br>when a gift arrives from the sea.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">Treat it as you yourself<br>would be treated, brought speechless and naked<br>into the court of a king.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">And when the request finally comes,<br>do not hesitate even an instant----<br>stroke the white throat,<br>the heavy trembling dewlaps<br>you'd come to believe were yours,<br>and plunge in the knife.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">Not once<br>did you enter the pasture<br>without pause,<br>without yourself trembling,<br>that you came to love it, that was the gift.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; ">Let the envious gods take back what they can.</p><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- Jane Hirshfield</div></div></body></html>