Tag: Silence

Featured Poet: Daniel Skach-Mills

WHY MONKS CHOOSE SILENCE

by Daniel Skach-Mills

To step out, once and for all,
from under the sag ging,
word-weary roof of the mouth.
To be the vast,
unfeathered nest of emptiness
out of which sound arises,
and into which it lands.
To live like the open ear of a furrow
listening for a seed—
loves infant hand knocking from inside,
wanting in to be the world.

(Artwork by Gordana Adamovic-Mladenovic, gordanaphoto.com)

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Silence

THE BREATH IS PRECIOUS

 
It was written in beautiful Persian calligraphy and was placed above the door of the old Tehran khaniqah. I first noticed it when I was a child: sokout dam ghanimat ast, “silence: the breath is precious.”