It isn't often that one sees
a Lord of Nature
meditating

in the hollow of a tree.
And when I peered
into that private place,

I heard the songs
my grandmother taught me.
She said,

to shut my eyes;
to go inside myself
and listen to the song

of who and what I am.
She taught me
the 'Song of Silence.'

So it struck me,
as I listened mesmerized
to that Lord of Nature

singing silently...
that my wish
since boyhood days

to sing, though not
completely
realized,

was now
closer to the mark
than it has ever been.


c. Douglas Fireman