There is the silence of those unjustly punished;
And the silence of the dying whose hand
Suddenly grips yours.
There is the silence of those unjustly punished;
And the silence of the dying whose hand
Suddenly grips yours.
There is the silence of a great hatred,
And the silence of a great love,
And the silence of an embittered friendship.
There is the silence of a spiritual crisis,
Through which your soul, exquisitely tortured,
Comes with visions not to be uttered
Into a realm of higher life.
And there is the silence of age,
Too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it
In words intelligible to those who have not lived
The great range of life.
And there is the silence of the dead.
A mirror scratched reflects no image-
And this is the silence of wisdom.
Their silence shall be interpreted
As we approach them.
There is the silence of Lincoln,
Thinking of the poverty of his youth.
There is the silence of those who have failed;
And the vast silence that covers
Broken nations and vanquished leaders.
They come in solitude, or perhaps
You sit with your friend, and all at once
A silence falls on speech, and his eyes
Without a flicker glow at you: --
You two have seen the secret together,
He sees it in you, and you in him.
And the silence of Napoleon
After Waterloo.
And the old soldier is struck with silence,
Or his mind flies away
Because he cannot concentrate it on Gettysburg.
And the silence of Jeanne d'Arc
Saying amid the flames, "Blessed Jesus" --
Revealing in two words all sorrows, all hope.
There is the silence of defeat.
© 2020 Inspirational Stories
© 2020 Inspirational Stories