Love explained all for me, all was resolved by love, so this love I adore wherever it may be.

I am open space for a placid tide where no wave roars, clutching at rainbow branches. Now a soothing wave uncovers light in the deep and breathes light onto unsilvered leaves.

In such silence I hide, a leaf released from the wind, no longer anxious for the days that fall. They must all fall, I know.

St. John Paul II, The Place Within1

1St. John Paul II, “Shores of Silence,” in The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II, Translated by Jerzy Peterkiewicz (New York: Random House, 1982), p. 6.