Stillness
The busyness of life now slowed
While seeds of calmness quietly sowed
Though plans and plots might be delayed
The headlong drive to triumph staid
Creates a zone that’s free from stress
The substitute for more is less
Calm, a contagion that infects
Our inmost soul, our rage deflects
Replaced by replicating cells
Of hopes and dreams that gently quells
The lust to win at any cost
That path through which our souls are lost
A stillness grounded not of “me”
Like Eden’s vaunted knowledge tree
Stands vigil on our berserk world
Ignoring insults flipply hurled
Absorbing fear, a potent balm
Starts fashioning a realm of calm
Welcoming souls of every sort
No single power holding court
No power blithely spawning waves
No segregating into slaves
Just stillness of the healing kind
None forsaken, none left behind
© 2018 Russell E. Willis First appeared in The MOON magazine (August 2019).