For Riche

If you're quiet

you can hear someone

building the world grain

by grain keeping that sky

steady holding their breath

risking trust and love

proving that risk by failing

starting again in that

strong way quiet men do.

If you're quiet

you can hear time walking

towards you on the gravel path

befriending some, ignoring others.

If you're quiet you can taste

salt and hear the final fold

hear the closing and farewell

hear adieu and disbelief.

If you're quiet you can hear

the dawn creaking into day

the great planet heaving round

a not-understood absence.

When you're quiet all things

coalesce; the man becomes

the earth, the dreams become the sky,

the friends and darlings, stones.

When you're quiet

the world is you, and you

the world, just as

it always was.

© Chris Mansell