Tensioned silence

Silence

at once arrogant and shrill

speaks a truth about relations

louder than words could say

as these two stand

at the thresh-hold looking

staring blankly past their eyes

their lips sealed against the word

that would free the caged Bird

Silence

like God is silent

silent yet speaking

speaking like God won't slay

by speaking

holding them in tension

attending to the other's absence

to the other's presence

brushing each like a whispered hope

a fermenting dream

believing that one day

someday

appreciation will blossom

embracing and kissing

wondering why it took so long

to speak

*The only face I see of God is the face of another human being.

*The past is history, the future a mystery but today is a gift which is why it is called the present.

*Reflections of Alan Jones:

  -The double desire to love and be loved is common to everyone.  It is the ancient drive of eros that unites us one with another.  Eros is not simply the drive towards sexual fulfillment; it is the impulse towards any satisfaction and completion.

  -God is the One who attracts, lures, draws us to "himself."

  -All our desires spring basically from the same source.  All our "erotic" impulses, even when misdirected, destructive, and erratic, relate in the end to the "Love of God."  Love in this sense is much more than a romantic urge.  It is the desire  of every creature to find its proper place, to find its true home.  It is like the force of gravity, which pulls things to their rightful place in the scheme of things.  Water finds its own level.  Smoke from a flame naturally rises upwards.  So it was believed that everything spontaneously tended towards its own place.  It is love that draws everything to its own unique home - for Dante, it is that which literally, makes the world go round.  It is this love/impulse that we all share in common.

  -To be a lover is, by definition, to be someone on "his" way home.