I, who live by words, am wordless when
I try my words in prayer. All language turns
To silence. Prayer will take my words and then
Reveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learns
To hold its peace, to listen with the heart
To silence that is joy, is adoration.
The self is shattered, all words torn apart
In this strange patterned time of contemplation
That, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me,
And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.
I leave, returned to language, for I see
Through words, even when all words are ended.
I, who live by words, am wordless when
I turn me to the Word to pray. Amen.
- by Madeleine L’Engle
(with thanks to Brother Darrell Grizzle’s Wild Faith blog for leading the way)
Ya Haqq!
Beautiful!
This is really nice. Thanks for posting Irving. It reminds me of some endings of Rumi’s poems I read recently.
“Earsight”:
Be silent now.
Say fewer and fewer praise poems
Let yourself become living poetry.
“I ask one more thing”
Now a silence unweaves
the shrouds of words
we have woven
Its interesting to see how language breaks downs, silent or vocal prayers give way to the silence of meditation, which give way to Sohbet – the Conversation with the Friend.
Just my two cent, my best wishes to you Irving.
Dave
That’s about as good as it gets for putting words to essentially ineffable experience…
Mashaa allah this is beautifully inspiring:). I truly loved it; very well written and utterly lifting and sustaining.
I am thankful to having come across your website randomly.