silence

there are many kinds of silence.

silence
can be a kind of violence:

tension that stretches over the abyss
between minds that continually miss
each other in the dark;

being unable to speak
for fear of saying too much
and having to clutch
at cliché;

silence that eats itself,
gnawing at the root,
serpent coils twisting tighter;

patience on a monument
growing green and pale
like unripe fruit;

the slow drawing apart
when the veil is torn
and the truth is revealed.

the silences that connect:

a companionable stillness
that is both fullness
and emptiness, but a spark
could leap from mind to mind;

long golden lazy afternoons
dreaming in the sun
only the water babbling;

contemplation
of the divine beloved,
communing with the beyond;

the inability to tell
a mystery - a sacred secret -
because it cannot be spoken.