Quietness

Sometimes when I’m quiet you think I’m upset
But I just need some private time to be by myself
To listen to the thoughts I have and try to sort them out
To figure out where I’m headed and learn something no doubt

A lot of times I’m talking just to listen to what I say
Wondering what the day might bring and the part I’ll play
I think someone has a sense of humor to let me think like this
Why can’t I just be left alone in my bit of quietness?

I’m left to think about the news of the day both happy and sad
Some of it makes me smile but most makes me mad
I look up at the sky and wonder why it goes on and on
All the pain and suffering from what seems like dusk to dawn

The shootings in Columbine where many lives lay to waste
The fire in a little house that leaves an awful taste
The angel who rose to heaven because of careless play
One who was too young to ponder where life would lead on another day

At times I get so angry that I shake my fist and shout
Please stop the madness that abounds and take away my doubt
I want so much to care and love and bring peace to a warring world
But all I see is bloodshed and hate towards a flag unfurled

Religions become battlegrounds for those who just don’t care
Someone walks into a building brandishing a gun, pointing it in the air
Where the bullets fly and the bodies fall no one is privy to know
But in the end a child pays for all the sins that we bestow

I run around in circles trying to figure it all out
Crying in pain because no one talks, they only know how to shout
I cry for the ones who can’t and pray for the ones that do
I want so much to help bring them all a life shiny and new

But I am only one person, a single, living, being
One who sits in her private space wondering, hearing, seeing
One little voice in a broken world wanting to sing out loud
To be heard raising a song of praise that will fly above the cloud

Singing a song to tell the world everything is okay
A melodious tune to quiet the soul and bring peace to every day
A word or a phrase bringing to mind what’s in each and every heart
Now is the time to begin again, to make a brand new start

Quietness you ask as I sit and ponder about the world today
What’s wrong with a bit of quietness like the sun on a rainy day
Or the stars at night as they shine so bright and light the path I trod
To let me know all is right in the world and all is right with God

Penny Peterson, 1999