Shared Silence by Brian Glaser
Those winter weekdays
my father woke me
to lie by the warmth of the wood-burning stove he heated
and listen to him make breakfast.
When hope eluded me tonight,
despite my home
and the health of my children,
I sat in silence by the fire to wait out the depth of winter.
Perhaps I learned this waiting
from my father,
who laughed so seldom,
so sincerely and deeply it sounded like a cry.
Brian Glaser has published three books of poems and many essays on poetry and poetics. He is associate professor of English at Chapman University in Orange, California.