With too much on my mind,
I drop on a solid black boulder
near the water's edge.
I scan the quiet bay
and draw a breath of rich,
salty air.
Slowly, as if trying not to disturb
the silence, I choose a stone, then toss it
into the calm water.
I pitch stone after stone,
a splash for every thought.
Some I skip harder,
for the miserable thoughts:
others softer,
for the pleasant ones.
My arms aching,
for a moment I watch
the ripples touch my toes.
Then, standing to stretch,
I glance back at the sea
one more time,
grateful
for its silence.
Reality will come too swiftly:
I know.
Tomorrow I will endure
the future
moment by moment,
stone
by stone.
Niall Janney, age 13
Edgecomb, Maine
When you hear the splash
of the water drops that fall
Into the stone bowl
You will feel that all the dust
Of your mind is washed away.
Sen-No-Rikyu
A life all turbulence and noise may seem
To him that leads it wise and to be praised,
But wisdom is a pearl with most success
Sought in still waters.
William Cowper, The Task
To the waters, and the wild, with a Faerie, hand in hand,
for the world is more
full of weeping ... than you can understand.
W.B. Yeats
