What Is Needed

I am opposed

as a matter of principle

to noise

I am willing to make an occasional allowance

for an ambulance, for instance,

or a fire engine

But only grudgingly

Rather, give me a rabbit

silently listening at a

field's edge

Or a cautious deer

gracefully whispering away

from sight

Give me the trickle of

a rain-swollen stream glazing

smooth pebbles

Or a deep gray fog rampaging

innocently through an

early morning woods

I can rest and be entirely at ease

with the rustle of fall leaves

skittering easterly

and I find that a blessed silence

is what is needed more often

than not.