 |
(photograph courtesy of Francletography, ©2011, www.Francletography.com)
|
The Quiet
I love when the world goes quiet and still;
When the
spinning whirling twirling comes to a halt,
When everything stops, pauses,
ceases for a moment in time.
When
everything is quiet.
Unlike many, this absence goes not give me a chill –
I am not
afraid to be still.
Rather, I find it perfect, peaceful, sublime.
The eye of my
storm.
If it were up to me, there would be mandatory silence
Enforced by
the universe
At regular intervals throughout the day –
Null moments,
Required time to just sit and
Required time to just sit and
be ruled by calm and patience;
No action
allowed –
Empty time, devoid of work, absent all play.
My own little
black hole.
I need time to just be – not be helpful
or be clever or be
nice,
Not to worry
about you or me or
the price of tea in China
But to just exist, lost in my own world, my own head,
Sitting in my
own quiet dark mental corner,
facing the wall.
I am not a rock, don’t want to be alone forever,
am not made
of ice;
No man is an
island, and I am no man.
I need interaction too, need love and
conversation as much
as water or bread.
I didn’t
always. You gave me that, my love,
and I
can never thank you enough.
But handfuls of placid moments,
scattered here and there
Are still a
part of who I am,
Are essential to my psychological welfare.
Without
them, I am not me.
Even with you.
© Jill Elizabeth Arent Franclemont
© Jill Elizabeth Arent Franclemont
Jill Elizabeth Arent Franclemont, a former corporate attorney and government relations and health policy executive, walked away (well, skipped actually) from the big-city worlds of corporate and political America and headed for a more literary life (equally challenging, but infinitely more enjoyable). Visit Jill at All Things Jill-Elizabeth and leave a comment about her poem below.
