John (reformatted)

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Words in search of silence
so that a word may come
unlike all other words
Prayer ripens the human heart
driving it from desire to desire
until it arrives at silence
The infant knows
what the man must learn,
the animals know it
in there, silent dark eyes.
In the quest for silence
words are not the enemy
and music is not the enemy
and pedestrians are not the enemy
and traffic is not the enemy
and cigarettes are not the enemy
and death is not the enemy
Desire suffices, to quench all desire
to defeat all enemies
to arrive at the silence
and to await a new word —
like the sleeping infant awaiting the dawn