Village Verses

REQUIEM For Trudy Silver
d. 2005

Across a naked night, in waves of peace
And pain, your music returns, granite rhythm,
Haunting harmony and melody,
Peerless phrases unrepliatable,
Hugging the whole of myself, as in life.
You go on, infinite, in darkest space,
Your ivory-taming fingers never lost.
A glissando and you’re gone, but you remain.

© Susan M. Silver, 2009, 2021, 2025. A variation of this poem was previously published in Allegro, 2009, and Breath & Shadow,Winter, 2021.

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MEDITATION ON LEVELS OF REALITY FALLING AWAKE

By Jan Crawford

The first was Time
Her breath frozen in her spine
She began to open to the possibility
Time does not exist always and everywhere
And she noticed a faint breath

Then there was Woman
Finding this harder than Time
Yet being moved still deeper
Her identity as Woman slowly dissolving
As space began to expand as well as breath

Even harder perhaps was Human
Wasn’t that irrefutable, unquestionable
But drawn further she couldn’t stop here
Out beyond mind’s desperate separations
The gentle sensation of ease now growing

Now American, White, Middle Class, Therapist
Next Educated, Old, Progressive and Feminist
Then even Buddhist and (secretly) Special came easier
Everything included but less consequential, defining
Her body even lighter and less contracted

Next Body itself seemed ready
Noticing that on this dimension of reality
To be defined in any way is to be confined
Aware now we are both embodied and not
Breath now pure non-local sensation

Each revelation now just arising on its own
Despite mind’s attempts to take control
This path toward freedom opening wider
As she noticed her own soft lingering smile
And moments of a never imagined freedom