! Benediction

Read this poem only aloud read it as slowly and with such solemn dignity as if it were the whole great human race declaring itself to be truly great read it as if it were as indeed it is not words but a great sounding bell and you are that great bell so large a bell so low its boom that it is more vibration than a sound struck in a temple courtyard by a robed monk so full of love that he merges into love itself every time he sounds the bell and as its sound now travels up into the clear mountain air the goatherds and the goats hear in its sound the meaning of their life and in the fields the workers raise themselves and know what blessing is and in the valley the silence after each stroke becomes more real as the echo fades and the air knows itself this poem is the sound of the human heart listening to itself beyond all words hearing praise and gratitude and love knowing themselves in stillness for what they are this poem is what is beyond all words smiling sorrowing as it seeks for words as it vibrates out into the silence the wonder of the unspoken the magic of all that’s yet unmanifest the thoughts yet to be thought hear in this bell the sound that tells to all that there is enough love in one single human heart to nourish the whole world hear this bell sounding aloud sound out eternal in your soul * * * [work in progress]