Growing into Silence
POETRY FORMAT, 4 Jun 2018
Emanuel E. Garcia – TRANSCEND Media Service
I have grown into silence
Perhaps the walks I stole,
Ever slower, perhaps
The far fold where there is
Neither sea nor sky,
The scattered shells and rocks
Polished and thrown at our feet
I bend to pluck them,
Brush their surfaces and
Gently toss or lay them back:
Their perfect patterns,
Sheen, their curvatures
I can’t explain
That’s when I will sit,
There is enough of air and spray,
The changing heedless forms
Nimble and great around,
That’s when I feel most keen:
To think that every storm
Eventually becomes the softest breeze
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Dr. Emanuel E. Garcia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, an American poet, novelist and physician who now resides in New Zealand. He may be contacted at emanuelegarcia@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 4 Jun 2018.
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Like the best of poets, Mr. Garcia does not waste his words…. And that is one of his messages here–savor the moment, carefully observe–even “the scattered shells and rocks/Polished and thrown at our feet.”
Observe…and “Gently toss or lay…back” so the next pilgrim may share the experience.
One grows into “silence”; one grows into “meditation”–what was once called “the philosophic mind”–, now too much neglected in the hurly-burly hubbub of modern life.
But, if we can maintain and “polish” that philosophic mind, we may “feel most keen” about the “nimble and great” changes around us and understand “that every storm/Eventually becomes the softest breeze.”