When I began to think about a small expression of peace for this Second Sunday of Advent, it was a whisper that took form in my mind. To receive a whisper requires both our silence and our stillness. The command is also an invitation: “Peace, be still.” Can we shape ourselves this Advent to be “all ears?”
Whisper
Hush
to the worried restlessness of not-enough
to the hurried rushing of not-yet
to the wound-tight storm and its unalterable course of collision.
Oh listen, soft and low it comes
— a whisper —
It is the lung-warmed vibration
of presence near and intimate,
the sweet everything in the ear.
And when I am sounded in the timeless space between these lips
I become still,
still,
still,
at peace.
*
Lindsey Gallant
From Small: An Advent Poetry Sequence
Composed for the caregivers of The Good Samaritan Society (www.gss.org)
Illustration by Elizabeth Evans
