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Benediction

Read this poem only aloud
read it as slowly and with such solemn dignity

as if it were the whole great human race
declaring itself to be truly great

read it as if it were
as indeed it is

not words but a great sounding bell
and you are that great bell

so large a bell so low its boom
that it is more vibration than a sound

struck in a temple courtyard
by a robed monk so full of love

that he merges into love itself
every time he sounds the bell

and as its sound now travels up
into the clear mountain air

the goatherds and the goats hear in its sound
the meaning of their life

and in the fields the workers raise themselves
and know what blessing is

and in the valley the silence after each stroke
becomes more real

as the echo fades
and the air knows itself

this poem is the sound of the human heart
listening to itself beyond all words

hearing praise and gratitude and love
knowing themselves in stillness for what they are

this poem is what is beyond all words
smiling sorrowing as it seeks for words

as it vibrates out into the silence
the wonder of the unspoken

the magic of all that’s yet unmanifest
the thoughts yet to be thought

hear in this bell the sound that tells to all
that there is enough love

in one single human heart
to nourish the whole world

hear this bell sounding aloud
sound out eternal in your soul

* * *

[work in progress]

poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
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