Poem: 'Accept advice'

“Accept advice”

from unexpected sources — not
the stonemason’s crowning
cathedral but his long apprenticeship
and the beautiful failures of his youth.
The way his hands knew their tools.
The way he saw through stone to fault line.
Perhaps his sons never joined him
in the guild, perhaps the cathedral fell
accomplice to corruption, and perhaps by now
you’re wondering what any of this
has to do with advice. Try
coming at it sideways.

— Leslie Ullman

“Accept advice” first appeared in Poet Lore.