The Sound Of Prayer Poem by naomi smith

It is not hard to imagine
how in Medieval times people
would rise early to pray
for then they had only the
noise of the river and the birds
and the wind to distract them
and in it they heard the
voice of life calling them
to pray.
My brother will have no
sounds in his home other than
the phone. He is content to
listen to the birds and the
wind and to find in them
the solace not offered by
men.
Consider all the strange noises
that come our way: the frig,
the heater, the clock, the
sound that the lamp makes
when it gets too hot.
All these sounds wear
us down and so we cannot
abide the sound of people
praying because it is just
another sound in the vast
range of electrical impulses.
But imagine if there were no
mechanical sounds to flood
the air and no electrical
currents spinning through
our bodies on their way
to nowhere.