I Listen To The Quiet Poem by Shalom Freedman

I listen to the quiet
And then I hear my own mind
It is quiet too
Simple words and silent sounds
A mind at peace for now
I listen to my own mind
And remember how my father
Of blessed memory
Could hear no quiet from his own mind
I listen to the silence and the quiet
Of my own mind
And I feel peace and gratitude
And regret for all the years
My father suffered from a terrible screaming clamor
He could not silence or still.