Read this poem only aloud <br />read it as slowly and with such solemn dignity <br /> <br />as if it were the whole great human race <br />declaring itself to be truly great <br /> <br />read it as if it were <br />as indeed it is <br /> <br />not words but a great sounding bell <br />and you are that great bell <br /> <br />so large a bell so low its boom <br />that it is more vibration than a sound <br /> <br />struck in a temple courtyard <br />by a robed monk so full of love <br /> <br />that he merges into love itself <br />every time he sounds the bell <br /> <br />and as its sound now travels up <br />into the clear mountain air <br /> <br />the goatherds and the goats hear in its sound <br />the meaning of their life <br /> <br />and in the fields the workers raise themselves <br />and know what blessing is <br /> <br />and in the valley the silence after each stroke <br />becomes more real <br /> <br />as the echo fades <br />and the air knows itself <br /> <br />this poem is the sound of the human heart <br />listening to itself beyond all words <br /> <br />hearing praise and gratitude and love <br />knowing themselves in stillness for what they are <br /> <br />this poem is what is beyond all words <br />smiling sorrowing as it seeks for words <br /> <br />as it vibrates out into the silence <br />the wonder of the unspoken <br /> <br />the magic of all that’s yet unmanifest <br />the thoughts yet to be thought <br /> <br />hear in this bell the sound that tells to all <br />that there is enough love <br /> <br />in one single human heart <br />to nourish the whole world <br /> <br />hear this bell sounding aloud <br />sound out eternal in your soul <br /> <br />* * * <br /> <br />[work in progress]<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/benediction-9/
