LISTENING

LISTENING

Listening reveals.

To hear the rustling clusters

of leaves that whisper to

soft brushing of a breeze,

the gurgling of a stream

that splashes onward down

a narrow bed of stones,

the far, full booming of

a metal bell's deep tone,

the crackle and the hissing

of fierce flames as they fly,

consuming dry wood, dancing towards the sky;

this is to sense

a fragment of

the speechless word

of all vast being of the world.

Listening is a sharing.

To hear bird melody

sound forth at dawn,

the drowsy purring of a dreaming cat,

or cows deep-lowing in the fields;

the watchful dog's excited bark,

the cry of gull, above foamed wave-tops riding wind,

a far owl hooting through

the insect murmur of the night;

this is to sense

the feelings of the wordless,

souls of the creatures of creation.

Listening is communing.

To hear a child's

first mouthings,

first mimicking of human speech

with all its meaning-sounding forms;

or listen to

a long, rich life reflected in quiet words;

to hear bright anger's fire,

or warming love,

all self's experience

in sound and sense,

a being speaking;

this is to learn

to listen to the human:

to love

word-weavers of the earth.

Listening is deepening.

To open to

the soundless stars,

to self's own stillness,

to that deep quietness behind

creation's song:

this is to listen

through silence,

to embrace

awareness of

the depths of Being.