(For Nan and FOS)
Are you a friend of silence?
How do you say, aptly?
Silently?
With a whisper?
Do you bellow from ecstasy?
For many years in the mail
routine as rain in Seattle
a small gift, a wee grace has come
to soften the heart
illumine the mind
relax the fist, a newsletter
one page, legal size or more
folded once vertical in the middle
then again horizontal in the center of that
selling silence, still, free, no charge
Its authentic purpose? To promote
inner peace, to foster a quiet
that everyone has, yet no one owns
and anyone can hear by listening
at the deep end of things
The discipline? To advertise a variety
of words, simple, unsoiled words
coming from deep enders who
over the years have become friends
unsought, unseen, yet of deep influence
The impressions made on you
have made of you a friend of silence
and you say it aptly
meekly, respectfully, from a hush
that never ends.
