Silence Meets Silence

There is a kind of silence that nourishes the soul,

allows pain and busyness and life to recede to the sharp margins,

leaving space,

room to breathe, room to be.

But there is a kind of silence that cuts like a knife,

walks through the mind with a clattering,

each step an unexpected resonant defeat,

a bully and a thief.

 

There is a kind of silence that breeds prayer upon prayer,

and the would-be blanks are filled in with communion—

to You, from You.

And there is life-substance in the weighted calm,

but not the weight that heavies the soul.

But there is a kind of silence that isolates,

birthing spits of anger

in and around the prickly edges of this wordless accusation.

And the unknowing

and the lack of resolution hardens by degree

what once was supple and red.

 

Where one silence meets the other is in these upturned hands,

this shattered, upturned heart that feels

so ill-equipped for trouble,

so helpless to control conditions, so unable to forgive, and

silence meets silence in blessed and sacred surrender.

 

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Psalm 91

¹ He who ^[a]dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].

² I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely,and in Him I [confidently] trust!