The Right to Remain Silent – Kai Siedenburg*
Happiness – Max Ehrmann
Desiderata – Max Ehrmann
https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html
Roses, Late Summer – Mary Oliver
http://a-poem-a-day-project.blogspot.com/2015/08/roses-late-summer.html
Hopkins, Gerald Manley – Pied Beauty
https://www.poemtree.com/poems/PiedBeauty.htm
Untitled (One Inch-Square Heart) – Gensei
http://firstknownwhenlost.blogspot.com/2021/04/present.html
When the Violin – Hafiz
https://poetrying.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/when-the-violin-hafiz/
Excerpt from “The Excesses of God” – Robinson Jeffers
https://internetpoem.com/robinson-jeffers/the-excesses-of-god-poem/
How Surely Gravity’s Law – Rainer Maria Rilke
https://www.thepoetryexchange.co.uk/how-surely-gravitys-law
Self-Pity – D.H. Lawrence
https://wordsfortheyear.com/2014/01/05/self-pity/
*Here is a copy of “The Right to Remain Silent.” Kai Siedenburg’s Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/kai.siedenburg.9, and she is the author of two books of poetry, The Space Between the Stones and Poems of Earth and Spirit.
THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT
You have the right
to remain silent,
In a world
crowded with sounds
and buzzing with
electronic signals,
as endless waves
of ringtones and alerts
wash over you,
and especially
when everyone else
is clamoring
to be heard—
you have the right
to remain silent.
—
You have the right
to remain still.
Amidst
the seemingly
ceaseless swirl
of the modern
world,
while an
alarmingly over-developed
to-do list
shouts at you
from your desk,
and especially when
everyone else
is hurrying
through ostensibly urgent
yet often unimportant tasks—
you have the right
to remain still.
—
You have the right
to remain calm.
In the midst of
a flood
of virtual signals
designed to incite
artificial urgency,
in the face of
a tsunami
of terrifying news
about the state
of our planet,
and especially when
everyone else
seems consumed
with worry
about what our future
may hold—
you have the right
to remain calm.
—
Faced with so many
compelling reasons
to be anxious,
overwhelmed,
and hurried—
indeed,
precisely because
there are
so many reasons
we could be
anxious,
overwhelmed
and hurried—
we have the right
to remain
silent,
still,
and calm,
to find a
peaceful place
at the center
of the storm
where we can go
to be restored,
so that we can
return to the fray
with renewed strength,
as a beacon
of peace and presence,
lighting the path
to another way
of being.
