Coming to Know Silence - Melissa Kelley

[Larry Robinson]

Coming to Know Silence

30 miles west of Ketchum
In the heart of the Sawtooths
I came to know silence.
It tiptoed in shyly
Following the belated curtain call of the sun,
As it eased into the maw of the mountains.

Slowly the cranes packed up their raucous squawks,
The ground squirrels ceased their alarming squeaks.
The wind, which whipped the pines fiercely all afternoon,
Dropped to a library whisper,
Then nothing at all.

I knew the night was alive with deer and elk,
Antelope and sheep,
But they seemed to walk in stocking feet.

I felt like the trail horse
Swiveling my ears to the window
Hearing a nothingness as vast as an Idaho valley,
As wide as the Western sky.

Deep beneath an alpine quilt,
I listened
And listened
And listened
To that most holy silence.


	- Melissa Kelley