Only Then Poem by Diana van den Berg

When you have listened
through the primordial silence
to stalactites dripping
in ancient caves...

When you have listened
to the unvoiced thoughts
of the beautiful
and the ugly
and the tortured...

When you have listened
to the world
dream
of music yet to be...

When you have listened
to the whisper of the nation,
the fear of the desperate,
the laughter of the unborn child,
the opening of a flower,
the flutter of butterfly wings,
the footfall of the smallest ant...

When you have listened
and heard
and given dignity
and credence
to all of these things
then you will understand
and know
and love
beyond the glass darkly.