At the Root

The sound the mind makes

at its root is not

silence but silence is in it

the way water is in the light

the way the patterns of waves

are in the sand after the water

has gone, the way you

are in me after you have gone,

the sound the heart makes

at its root is

the rose opening its wings,

the billowing of cloud

at the edge of emptiness, the hawk

soaring on a blue tower of silence,

the sound the soul makes

at its root is the moment

after the hawk's strike,

the tussel in the grass, the night scream,

the rattle of blood in the throat,

the sound of light fading from the eye

mouse eye, child's eye, old man,

muse— the sound the heart makes

is in the changing sorrows

of your face, wrinkled brow, crow's feet

root of joy—

                                                                        DL