WHY WAS THE MASTER SILENT?


"Oh, Master, why were You silent?"
I asked of Him one day.

And He turned and looked at me
With His All-knowing look
That understands all our questioning,
And in my mind an answer began to form.

"Silent?" Asked the Ancient One.
"Be silent a moment and hear Me speak.
I speak in the squawking of the gullls
And the padding of soft shoes on pavement.
I speak in the roar of the ocean
And in every drop that falls."

"Be still and you will hear Me speak,
For only in the noise of your own mind
Can My Voice ever be lost."

"The Universe is alive
With the Music of My speaking."

"Yet if in this human form
I do not talk with my mouth,
It is so you will learn
To be guard over yours."

"For I have come in an age
When words spew forth from mouths
Like lava from volcanoes,
Covering all in their ashen haze."

"A word is sacred, yet men
Exchange these jewels 
In the marketplace
With looks of boredom,
Avarice and contempt."

I come to restore the key
To this Treasure Chest called Man:
I come to bring back
The Wholeness that was lost."


And if I do not speak with my tongue,
Then perhaps I need not:
For all words, on every tongue,
Are Mine."

(1976)