The Art of Silence – a poem by Christine Anderson

The Art of Silence

a Buddhist monk taught me to sit silently
 	     be the moon floating over my back field
                          a buttercup cradled in a clump of spring grass
sit hushed
 	     as the broad shoulders of granite mountains
                          in their shawl of clouds—
sit despite
 	     an unquiet morning
                          that buzzes and twitters and zips
sit to be a dewdrop
 	     in the garden
                          a perfect pearl of daybreak—
a Buddha 
 	     sitting.

Christine Andersen is a retired dyslexia specialist. She has published over 140 poems and is a 2025 Pushcart nominee. In 2025, she won the Jonathan Holden Poetry Chapbook Contest for To Maggie Wherever You’ve Gone, the Distinguished Favorite of the NYC Big Book Award for grief and remembrance. She lives on a Connecticut farm with five hounds.