You Hearing This, Be Ready

Starting here,
what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers?
What softened sound from outside
fills the air?
Listen,
will you ever be bringing a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect you carry,
wherever you go right now?
Are you waiting for time
to show you some better thought
than those you have?
When you turn around, starting here,
lift this new glimpse that you found,
carrying into evening all that you want from this day.
This interval you spent hearing this:
keep it for life.
What can anyone give you
greater than now?
Starting here,
right now in this room,
when you turn around?

William Stafford