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Open Poetry #47
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OwlSA
Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

0 posted 2011-02-14 02:57 PM



ONLY THEN
8 August 2005

When you have listened
through the primordial silence
to stalactites dripping
in ancient caves . . .

When you have listened
to the unvoiced thoughts
of the beautiful
and the ugly
and the tortured . . .

When you have listened
to the world
dream
of music yet to be . . .

When you have listened
to the whisper of the nation,
the fear of the desperate,
the laughter of the unborn child,
the opening of a flower,
the flutter of butterfly wings,
the footfall of the smallest ant . . .

When you have listened
and heard
and given dignity
and credence
to all of these things
then you will understand
and know
and love
beyond the glass darkly.

Owl

© Copyright 2011 Diana van den Berg - All Rights Reserved
Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California
1 posted 2011-02-14 07:30 PM


All of us can listen but only some of us hear, Diana. I have a feeling you hear more than most.
                                 Ida

bel1e
Senior Member
since 2006-07-24
Posts 1631

2 posted 2011-02-15 10:34 AM


this one reads like prayer, Owl~~~

niiice~

             

secondhanddreampoet
Member Ascendant
since 2006-11-07
Posts 6394
a 'Universalist' !
3 posted 2011-02-15 11:08 AM


excellent (as usual)!

As a former geologist ... I am particularly fond of the beginning ...

"When you have listened
  through the primordial silence
  to stalactites dripping
  in ancient caves . . ."

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa
4 posted 2011-02-15 11:09 AM


Thank you, Ida.  That is a very beautiful Ida-thing to say.  I believe I hear a lot that many others don’t hear, but I also think that there is still far more that I need to hear.

Smiles, Belle.  That, too, is a lovely thing to say.  The last two lines are a misquote – in word and content - of a part of II Corinthians 13 of the Bible (wording in the King James version), such a very beautiful chapter of the Bible –it says: “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity”,  (“charity” in more modern versions, being translated as “love”).

Owl

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa
5 posted 2011-02-15 11:12 AM


Oops!  I missed your response, Bruce.  I must have been replying while you pressed the Submit button!

Thank you for your kind words and I am glad you enjoyed it so much.  I love the feel of that part too.  

Owl

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