the language of stones

 

I’ve heard it said that “words can only point to a feeling…”

can we ever really hear each other?

 

stones-stream-language

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

2 thoughts on “the language of stones

  1. 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

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