We trek to a place of solitude,
this lonely place, to sit,
to listen to the water, to the wind, to the silence:
the silence speaks to us as we walk, as we sit.
And in this lonely place the loneliness drains from us –
from our arms, our legs, our beating hearts –
richness fills us:
the voices of the pines, the balsam, and the birch
which call out to us in the wind.
Gentle, the breeze ruffles the needles, the leaves.
We have searched – endlessly –
for this place:
for the solitude that is in loneliness,
for the depth that is boundless,
without form.
Here, the emptiness fills us,
completes us.
—Mary Elyn Bahlert, “At Solitude Swale,” Door County, Wisconsin, 5/2025
Well, I just wrote a comment but in resetting a password it seems to have gone the way of all flesh. Let me try again. Your poem/meditation is beautiful. When I write a story, so often the character comes to some crisis point where she has to go away, find a place to sit watching water, and it’s there she might find some peace and energy. In the presence of unexpected water, “Remember your baptism and be grateful.”
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Wonderful ….found peace in this poem. Thank you
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Carolyn, I’m so happy to know you are reading my blog! Thank you!
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