Racing from silence to silence,
Have you ever lived?
In the quiet of dead and the dead of quiet
Has life ever renewed?
I give you a list of things dead-
winters, mirrors, the quiet,
You, eating away in solitude
In the dead of the night
No surer is dead than one
Bereft of words and speech
For thinking alone gets nothing done;
Pondering doesn't teach
Then let life renew your roots,
Undo the knots in your tongue-
To learn, to pray, to admire, to teach
Old virtues left unsung.
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