A Song for My Silence

These mountains are in my bones--
both calcified spines,
straight lines
from head to heart.
I sit in solitude and listen,
bask in what He’s given.
 
When I grow quiet, I learn
that just beyond the wood-line,
there is bird-swell:
cardinals and wrens,
jays and sparrows,
chattering back and forth
in endless creation-song--
bursting with verve in my repose--
among the ancient spruce and pines.
 
And here, just beyond
the blue mountain’s crest,
a faithful train chugs west
through the valley,
and its longing whistle
adds to the chorus
of nature’s endless hymns.
 
I come here to learn, to go low--
to be voiceless and see anew,
to shed the scales I can’t see through.
I have come here to disappear into it--
to be stripped of my self-obsession,
to find a Truer Country--
when I dare to be still and know:
the mighty ridge,
the thick verdant forest of life,
the lush rhythms of a coming spring.
 
I have come to know God’s hours
and his canvas for myself,
to rest and wait in this quietude
for the sunset, moonlight,
and midnight stars to shine--
unencumbered by the city noise and city lights,
unsheathed from my former self--
so I might watch it all unfold
like the miracle it is:
God stooping--
              even here
                            and ever still--
                                          to paint the sky,              
                                                        all golden-grace
                                          and fire-glow,
                            and to fill the air
              with a song for
my silence.
​
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Kimberly Phinney is an award-winning professor and writer. She is the founder of TheWayBack2Ourselves.com. Kimberly holds her M.Ed. in English and is a doctoral candidate in Community Care and Counseling. Her work appears in Christianity Today, Ekstasis, Solum, and more. Her poetry collections, Of Wings and Dirt and Exalted Ground, were bestsellers. Her forthcoming book on art and faith debuts with Baker Books in 2027. She’s a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, Audience Choice Award winner with Ekstasis (now Inkwell), and runner-up in Fathom’s Poetry Contest. She was featured on Good Morning America for a national teaching award. Instagram: @kimberlyphinneywriter. Substack: https://thewayback2ourselves.substack.com/.