There’s lonely listening, when
sitting in a crowd. Open listening
as one listens, eyes closed,
to the wind in the cottonwood leaves.
Numb listening, as one listens
to detergent commercials.
Baffled listening, as one
tries to discern if the speaker could
possibly believe what they say.
And full-body listening as
the cello plays. Sometimes,
I’ve felt my whole being break
with delight in joyful listening
to my daughter’s laughter.
And break equally
with the unbearable listening
as the soil falls on the casket.
There’s the holy listening
when we listen for the dead,
and greedy listening,
in which every other utterance
is merely a ladder rung
for stepping into your own story.
Selfless listening knows only to receive.
There’s the way you sometimes listen to me,
as if my words are waves on the river,
not something to interpret,
but something familiar.
And the way you sometimes listen
to my silence and know precisely
what I mean. There’s nervous listening,
as one listens to the mouse in the wall.
And vast listening, like when on a clear night
lit only by stars, I can almost sense
how the universe not only sings
through my body, but listens, too,
listens to itself, and knows itself
in the listening.
after reading “As One Listens to the Rain” by Octavio Paz and “Speaking and Language” by Paul Goodman
A gently elegant litany of listening. You engage us completely as you move through the mutations and modalities of listening. And have you noticed that “listen” is an anagram of “silent”?
I do love this anagramic delight!
You are a wizard of words. This is exquisite. Simply exquisite.
thank you for this–and the other note, too!!!
Wow. Such a list – I’m not sure I could add any listening varieties to it, but now you’ve got me started thinking!
I can’t stop finding them now!
This poem leaves me speechless with its crystal beauty and wonder!! Sometimes listening to others and others tender listening to me is like a crystal. I will use it in my AM meditation… Thank You!!
Thank you, dear Joanne!
grateful listening as someone opens the treasure box of their vulnerability and humanity, allowing it to gracefully flow into our lives as fecund soil… all within a poem.
thank you dearrosemerry, for enhancing my growth
Oh dear Laegan, thank you for saying it just this way. ❤️❤️❤️❤️