Our Echoes Poem by Jim Yerman

When I take a walk in the quiet of the morning before the day's destiny has been cast
If I listen very carefully…I hear echoes of the past.

Echoes of my life from yesterday back to my infancy…
and I hear other echoes that have been resonating throughout eternity.

Echoes of love, compassion, acceptance, kindness and courage resounding endlessly
from wherever they originated…that have found their way to me

I don't hear echoes of hate and prejudice in the silence as I make my way
which makes me wonder what is it…these echoes are trying to say?

Perhaps these echoes of the morning…all these echoes of the past
want us to understand how echoes of love and kindness are the echoes that will last.

How, even though, hate and prejudice may be the loudest echoes we hear today…
over time, eventually…these echoes fade away.

Drowned out as echoes oscillate from somewhere up above
by echoes of kindness,
echoes of compassion…
echoes of acceptance…
echoes of love.

Perhaps by looking at our own lives…encouraged by these echoes of the past
we can decide the kind of echoes we leave behind and how long our echoes last.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if, when we're gone, when we no longer cease to be
our echoes join with other echoes that echo through eternity?