SHE TOUCHED ME IN SILENCE by Doris Russell

Writings from the Women, Creativity and the Journey of the Soul: Embracing the Gift of the Shadow in August 2007

She touched me in silence
Shock, Reverence, Awe
It was the waves hurtling their
strength at me
It was the drowning in the water
Sputtering, gasping for air
The sheer joy of doing it

Here comes the next wave
I'm going to ride in it,
dive in it, swim in it, feel the wetness,
the sun and the sand - hitting bottom.
Oh, my god - I'm going to die
No, you're not - get up -
struggling -- yes ---
Up, Up - there's the sunlight

Oh my God that was great!
I love it, love it, love it
It is so much fun
So much joy
So much sheer exhilaration.
I want to do it again
And I will ----

What I was thinking of or feeling at the time when I wrote that was when I was a kid of about 8 years of age and riding the waves at Rockaway Beach in Queens. Later that day I wrote what follows downstairs at the Country Place, sitting in that little patio they have in the back. I like what I wrote. Or I guess my ego likes it (ha ha that's a joke I'm making.)

The breath in the air
The dew on the leaves
The crack in the cement
I am surrounded by a forest of living things.
The grass is growing
The trees - they stretch ever so tall and strong
The leaves they shimmer and ever-ever so slightly move.
There - the soft chirping of a bird breaking the silence.
I am wrapped in a cloak of warmth and stillness.
Oh, the solitude of it
The quietness of it.
What is that?
Ah, man comes and the tractor purrs with the noises
of daily chores.

This came from the same place as the top poem but - the feeling was a little different - i don't think i was thinking. What does it matter anyway - whether I think or am? It all comes from the same place!!