Freshly cool the silent room inhales
the fair scent of summer night
candles on the table flutter
an incense mingling breeze.
Retreated from our seared souls' silences,
those zombie spaces where in the cold snake
kills the warm, composed heart opens
to the pains that move yet are not changed.
If I could give you now this other stillness
wherein the night owl cries beyond the barn
two minds' silences would be as one
grateful emptiness of a midnight calm.
And yet heart's silences like secrets
are for the single one alone -
in your universe and far away you move
here candles flutter in hay scented air.
July 1975