Shore of Silence

(Sunrise, Norham Castle, J. M. W. Turner, 1775-1851,
English Romantic “painter of light”)

“A loving heart is the truest wisdom,” wrote the English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

from SHORE OF SILENCE

Love explained all for me,
all was resolved by love,
to this love I adore
wherever it may be.

I am open space for a placid tide
where no wave roars, clutching at rainbow branches.
Now a soothing wave uncovers light in the deep
and breathes light onto unsilvered leaves.

In such silence I hide,
a leaf released from the wind,
no longer anxious for the days that fall.
They must all fall, I know.

~ Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005), Polish priest, philosopher, playwright, and poet, later to become Pope John Paul II; translation by Jerzy Peterkiewicz