Two hundred years ago Issa heard the morning birds singing sutras to this suffering world. I heard them too, this morning, which must mean, since we will always have a suffering world, we must also always have a song.
~ David Budbill, "What Issa Heard" in MOMENT TO MOMENT
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Music ingathers all, yet takes one only into its secret when the chimes begin. When that great rain of sound comes down, the lonely of spirit is elect and enters in. One evening shines with bells; alone, apart we listen, awed, to the antiphonal pealing of our hearts.
Music by right is for the solitaries whom a long silence trains to the profound. The bells are ours; we come at the first airy rumor to drench our deserts with their sound. Yet anyone who listens may become hermit or anchorite under the shower when the great chimes -- tree shakes its leaves of light.
~ "The Evening Chimes" from Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers