I’ve heard it said that “words can only point to a feeling…”
can we ever really hear each other?
the language of stones
if I slip a word
beneath your door
could you read it?
stones
upon the shore, count
the skips one, two, three – more
then silence.
we hurtle
past each other
such a brief intersection
yet two lives may still
make a plane
walk with me
this weathered shore
and we might learn again
this language of stones.
one, two, three – more
then silence, dark waters,
winds and waves,
this hard, hard knowing
before words.
© 2015 jafink/oldbones.newsnow.com
jeff, this is beautiful. I was struck recently by a Mark Nepo poem that points us to this place before words, where a deep current of knowing and communication takes place, if we’ve the patience to listen long enough. Thank you for this offering and for your recent publishing of your photos from Prague. Stunning.
Below is the Nepo poem:
Lost Speech
The more that falls away,
the more knit I am to things
before they speak;
drawn into the waters of silence. When I listen carefully,
I am drawn below the words of those speaking,
into the current using them,
as the wind uses a reed to get animals to stop chewing
and widen their eyes.
I once followed sunset
into a purple marsh and
stepping on a fallen log,
the tangled brush tugged
the trees to sway.
Hundreds of cranes lifted
and I was undone.
I am now devoted to
the lost step that brings
us into the open.
-mark nepo
The lost step that brings us into the open- very nice! Thanks for the comment, the poem and the kind words.
Jeff