"The Holy Surprise of Right Now"

One of my favorite poems - some of whose lines I've remembered for more than 25 years - was written by Samuel Hazo (founder and director of the International Poetry Forum, Pittsburgh, PA).  I met Samuel Hazo in 1986 just back from a year in Japan and starting a graduate program in the History & Philosophy of Science at Pitt.  Here are the lines that I've remembered all that time:

To live
you leave your yesterselves
to drown without a funeral.
...
You rig. You anchor up. You sail.

-Samuel Hazo (from The Holy Surprise of Right Now)

Here it is again fully.  It is the ending of a poem called "The First and Only Sailing":

I hadn't remembered it precisely, but I had remembered the lines that stuck to my soul.  And this is why I love poetry.  It is the "holy surprise of right now".  What power there is in leaving your yesterselves to drown without a funeral!  You can just feel your lungs fill up with new air.

Way back then I talked to Samuel Hazo about poetry.  He said that poets cannot not write poetry.  As in, poets are compelled to write poetry.  But I'm letting compulsion die without a funeral.  I don't have to do squat.  But what I choose to do is sail!  And I'm going to be looking for the "holy surprise of right now" everywhere I can find it.  Best "holy surprise of right now" ever!