Home » Art

Poem

Submitted by on July 24, 2019 – 2:50 pmNo Comment

In the Stillness

by Patty Christiena Willis

They say you speak in the stillness,

I have known that.

There are days when 

all I hear is my heartbeat

and the rush of body fluids

the sound through stethoscopes like

the sound of the sea

in my ears

waves washing to shore

above me.

My feet in the fine sand

toes watching out for

pieces of glass

thrown by revelers

years ago or last night.

Public beaches in darkness

can hold anything

enough anger or carelessness

to break bottles

and chase friends

becoming enemies

across sand

missing driftwood barely

startling lovers in hollows

under trees.

Even the sea bottom

holds evidence of

life on earth

beyond your stillness.

Or, is your stillness

waiting?

They stop running

and look up 

stars falling.

The empty six-pack,

the cheap wings,

Communion.

The Sea,

Your presence.

The Lovers,

evidence of life.

avatar

About the author

Rev. Patty Christiena Willis wrote 4 articles for this publication.

After two decades on the western coast of Japan, the Rev. Patty Christiena Willis and her partner moved to the borderlands of Arizona/Mexican border. The complications of life on the border drew Willis to study for the ministry and in 2008 sheenteredEarlham School of Religion, a Quaker seminary in Richmond, Indiana. From 2010, her theater work, Man from Magdalena, has funded over $150,000 in micro-loans to Central America and Mexico. She served a UU congregation for six years in Salt Lake City, Utah and beginning in the fall of this year, she will be serving a congregation in Prescott, Arizona.

Comments are closed.