Precious Time Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

Give me peace.
Give me leisure.
Give me time to read
And pause
And take up again,
Possible where I left off
Perhaps with something new
Maybe to review a passage
With an altered view.

Give me quiet.
Give me the music of silence.
Give me the company of no one
To sit with
To walk with
To take to bed.
Let me be alone enough
To get to know myself.

Leave me to my own devices
For hours at a time
So that I can allow ideas
To combine and rise
In the warmth of my own contentment.

If you can grant me this luxury,
I will try to return to you
With the fruits of my contemplation
Distilled into metered poetry
Composed in a state of serenity.

I cannot promise it will be great.
I will not demand your praise.
I will simply thank you
For understanding me,
My need to write poems,
My belief that they sustain souls,
My hope that some of my verses
Will be discovered and loved
By readers I may never meet
But who will feel the kindred
Of strangers bound by beauty.