Listening to Silence

author’s note:

Since my previous post spoke of water, I thought it appropriate to follow with a poem about stone.


LISTENING TO SILENCE

Here in the canyon
the black boulder
has the great patience
to wait...

as I struggle to awaken to it.

Day after day, I return to the stone:
this returning is my ritual--
my homing, my homage,
my prayer, my growth.

Even in my blindness, I can see
how much that boulder knows--
something of such profound quiet
must be unfathomably wise--

so wise as to remain silent--
so wise as to speak to me
with its silence--its silence
instructs me to listen...

to what can not be spoken

which is always stronger
than anything that can.

And though my hearing
still feels so weak
I'm slowly gaining strength

because each day, as I listen
in my short time of quiet I find
a just little more
of that master boulder
solid in my silent depths.

© 2012, Michael R. Patton
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