Quietly Present Poem by Edith Niemeyer

Where autumn lays its colors
At the feet of mountain snow,
Where the stillness holds the water
And the evening bends down low,
Dogwood blossoms frame the heavens,
Tulips gather by the way,
And a hummingbird hangs weightless
Where the dying sunlight stays.
Long brown tresses fall like rivers,
Lavender trails upon the stone,
And beside her walks a Presence
She has somehow always known.
[Pre-Chorus]
Not a voice that calls her onward,
Not a hand that makes her choose—
Just a quiet witness with her,
Leaving nothing she can lose.
[Chorus]
Quietly present,
Always there,
Woven through the music,
Moving through the air.
Quietly present,
Where the seen and unseen meet,
Love has walked beside her
With every step beneath her feet.
And the hummingbird remembers,
And the mountains seem to know—
Some things never need announcing
For the heart to know they're so.
[Verse 2]
She has carried songs in silence,
She has given silence voice,
Turned the words into a dwelling,
Made the melody her choice.
From the microphone beside her
To the notes upon the page,
Every song becomes an echo
That cannot be held by age.
'For God so loved the world...'
Rests beside the path she takes,
Not an ornament behind her—
But the promise in her wake.
[Pre-Chorus]
And the veil moves with the Presence
Till you cannot quite discern
Where the lace becomes the shimmer,
Where the shimmer might return.
[Chorus]
Quietly present,
Always there,
Woven through the music,
Moving through the air.
Quietly present,
Where the seen and unseen meet,
Love has walked beside her
With every step beneath her feet.
[Bridge]
Five stones upon the figure eight,
Five lives within one round—
Blue Topaz catches heaven,
Garnet holds its ground,
Amethyst keeps its wisdom,
Tourmaline remembers love,
And Purple Haze holds softly
What cannot be named above.
She does not wield the staff to lead,
Nor command the road to shine—
It touches stone so lightly
As if asking it for time.
And where its point has rested,
One faint shimmering remains—
An imprint among forgetfulness,
A remembrance without name.
[Quiet Interlude]
Amazing Grace upon the page,
A melody waiting there...
A hummingbird above her,
The Presence in the air.
A love song never written in words,
A love song never forgotten...
[Final Chorus]
Quietly present,
You were always there,
In every song she carried,
In every whispered prayer.
Quietly present,
Through every turning round,
Through mountain, lake and autumn,
Through every sacred sound.
And when her shoes lie somewhere
Farther down the winding way,
And her feet meet stone uncovered
At the closing of the day—
She will not ask who walked there,
Or when the Presence came.
She'll smile as if remembering
What her spirit always knew:
You never came to find me.
I was always walking with You.
[Outro]
A love song never written in words...
A love song never forgotten.
The hummingbird keeps hovering.
The evening settles down.
One staff touches one stone—
and leaves
the faintest light
behind.