for my high school friend on hearing of the death of his son
I want to be with those stones
immense and silent elders
bearing their near eternal witness
to human noise, human striving stilled
by suffering singing its ancient song on
the anvil of human grief.
We are made still as they.
Our wailing notes and speechless lyrics
accompanied by raw wind for orchestra,
ring out movements of autumn, spring, winter, summer—
seasons however out of joint. They and we
belong on the Salisbury Plain
brought to size against these elders,
the chasm of the tomb writ large in
hieroglyph of stone
only an angel can toss as a trifle.
Immense and silent these elders sanctify
the heart’s empty landscapes
and let us make companions of silence.
–
Bettina Tate Pedersen is professor of literature at Point Loma Nazarene University and co-editor/author of Being Feminist, Being Christian: Essays from Academia and Facing Challenges: Feminism in Christian Higher Education and Other Places. She loves quiet places and poetry, and she shares life with her spouse and two sons.