approaching silence

report from a silent retreat

serra de monchique

summer twenty twenty-two

_____________________________

approaching silence

stepping into open space

no step steps will take you there

it it not there

it is not here

*

the skin of mountains you see

is made from the mirage of paths

*

things begin falling awqy

arrayed yet ungraspable

slowly

the hand opens

the mind

stillness is

*

the heart realm

home to all

paths

here and there

crossings you

movement incessant

closures

none

*

in its fullness

just empty space

knows no hurdles

the heart

*

whose heart whispers

here in this mountain heat

bracing for unflinching winds

everything open

laid bare

before the rocks

before the sky

becomes breath

*

nightfall over the valley

echoes of footsteps on stony pathway

fading

maybe it's the bell ringing

waves loosened into the air

*

from the ridgetop

red moon

full

emerges

meeting you again

city lights shimmer

in the hazy distance

*

sitting together

to one another unknown

knowing not needed

just days of silence

presence of the immeasurable

it is closest

maybe time

maybe space

this is the beginning

both of forgetting

and remembering

*

questions slowly move into silence

find the peace of

absence of response

released

become resonance

opulence of response

*

what you thought you had to

leave behind to walk

freely among echoes

yet did not know

hs been here

here and already at rest

at rest

and at home

dissolved in the morning light

*

great absences

immaculate blue sky

the clouds

the clouds and the many things

leave us wordless

were we to listen

silence is here when

everything else is gone

nobel companion

*

silence is nowhere

abode to the mind

resting in that plenitude

unstirring

*

mind has nowhere to dwell

the time of an utterance

revisions itself as the sea

wind sweeping the surface of waters

the time of a breath

to appear and disappear

this is us and

the many things

we follow the trail of birds

into the scented evening

*

the world that is the other world

but only to be found here

is the mirror of silence

*

to find it

one must step outside of it

no one steps outside of it

it is

erasure of what divides

*

it cannot be found

it is radiance

what we call vastness is its passing

from where to nowhere

light here

dark here

right here

*

in its wake

constellations trace their path

that distant murmur

*

late night

we are asleep

to draw cooler water

dreams merge

at the mountain source

keeping vigil

the toads in the pond

*

just to sit

moment after moment

simplicity invites

be present with

presence of what is

*

vastness

what is it

abundance

abundance is what

what is alive