Amid the intricacies of your inner ear,
the vessels and instruments and wise listeners
that translate air into meaning,
is an ocean cave that magnifies
all the haunting cries of the earth,
all the moans and shrieks and calls and whispers,
hearing clearly even the private weeping
of small children and distant tribes.
There is a great tree in your inner ear
whose roots are in that ocean cave,
whose branches quiver with every bird song,
every sorrow or delight, every cry of wonder.
All these voices echo in the deep cavern
and do not die out. They are in you.
So it is that we often do not hear well,
with all the noise, and often feel
some real yet vanishing weight
we do not understand,
perhaps of grief or hope or joy, unspoken.
At times, therefore, we pause
in stillness and let the chorus complete its aria.
Heard, then, the voices calm
and become in us a clearer hearing,
a deeper wisdom.
We speak with the voice of hearing.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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