Whose Silence Are You?

— Listen, I wonder, whose silence are you? O, o, o, o. — Let’s begin with a poem by Thomas Merton:In SilenceBe still.Listen to the stones of the wall.Be silent, they tryto speak yourname.Listento the living walls.Who are you?Whoare you? Whosesilence are you?Who (be quiet)are you (as these stonesare quiet). Do notthink of what you arestill less ofwhat you may one day be.Ratherbe what you are (but who?)be the unthinkable oneyou do not know.O be still, whileyou are still alive,and all things live around youspeaking (I do not hear)to your own being,speaking by the unknownthat is in you and in themselves.“I will try, like themto be my own silence:and this is difficult. The wholeworld is secretly on fire. The stonesburn, even the stones they burn me.How can a man be still orlisten to all things burning?How can he dare to sit with themwhen all their silence is on fire?” — The whole world is not so secretly on fire. All our silences are of freaking fire. Still, there are the stones. — I’m…