The 60-Second Sabbath

quiet

  • New Year’s Eve

    Out with the crappy,     the silly, the dumb,Out with what leaves us    so distrait and numb.In with the clearer,    the focused, the real,In with our opting    to be and to feel. Here's to less TV,   … Continue reading

  • Trying to Write

    1.I apologize to my battered muse,once again elbowed asideby in-crowding concerns,loud and demanding,like rich American touristsinvading by the busloada Mexican villageright at siesta. She shrinks and retreats. 2.My mind is too noisy and busyfor the careful, considered crafting of words,which,… Continue reading

  • This Quiet

    This quietembraces,wraps me in stillness; in our new spaceI welcome silence,long-lost friend,and hear thingsfor the first time– the metal wall clock that I purchaseda decade agoticks audibly–tick, tick, tick, tick;ten years passedwithout hearingits heartbeat– when the cats pad across the… Continue reading

  • Life is the strugglebetween Ego and Stillness. Chin up, my friend:Stillness wins. Or more precisely,only Stillness is.  Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • What We Need

    I'll tell you what we need:    more ears    and fewer tongues. My cats will tell us what we need:    more purr    and less hiss. The snow-silenced woodswill tell us what us what we need:    less noise    and more glistening, listening stillness. Christmas tells you what you… Continue reading

  • For Those Who Rise at Night

    I rise at night,wander empty rooms–the cats remain asleep at the foot of the bed,black fur blending to darkness. I listen for the voice–listen in vainfor the voice I knowcan shake me,awaken meto freedom. Perhaps tomorrow nightI will rise againand… Continue reading

  • The Museum

    We visit a museum–an enormous, crammed collectionof paintings, furniture and glassware. There are employees here,but they display the same restfulnessas the items exhibited in the glass cases,as the furniture, unused, guarded by satin ropes. It's as if the entire place–contents… Continue reading

  • Advent 17

    Late Christmas Eveand, by the light of the tree, I sit in the living room writing.The final CD ends;quiet settles about me like an old wool afghan. So this is actually it–that about which we've endlessly sung–the silent night. I… Continue reading

  • Silence

    Silenceis an invitationto go deep. Try it now. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.    Continue reading

  • Your Tongue

    Your tonguelike the clapper of a wind-battered bell,constantly clangs and clatters.Why the ceaseless alarm? Hush now and allowthe sufficiency of silence. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading