silence and offerings, or, silent offerings

Gift

~ Leonard Cohen

You tell me that silence

is nearer to peace than poems

but if for my gift

I brought you silence

(for I know silence)

you would say

"This is not silence

this is another poem"

and you would hand it back to me.

Or this poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca that begins:

I am offering this poem to you,

since I have nothing else to give.

Keep it like a warm coat

when winter comes to cover you,

the cold cannot bite through,

or like a pair of thick socks.....

As for me, I offer you this silent bowl of white rose petals this morning. {I have nothing else to give.}

I am trying to keep beautiful things, silence, in my mind.

I'm holding thousands of beating wings in my hand like flower petals every instant.


"To hold a bird in the half-closed palms of your hand is terrible, 
it's as if you had the trembling instants in your hand. The terrified 
bird beats its thousands of wings frantically and suddenly its fine, 
beating wings are in your partly closed hand..."

~ Clarice Lispector

Though of course it's me that is terrified.

That's what it's like to write poetry like silence into the silence.

It has to be that way.