Essentials

Went for a walk
and found a granite ledge
calling from where
it poked through
the frozen floor
of a clearing

I put my ear to it

The voice was
unlike that in a shell
that cradles
the womb-song of
ocean

Instead
a muffled
operatic baritone
declaimed other essentials
and broke now and then
into warm silence

I cannot recall a word I heard

although
inside me
the sacristy
where I hold
my best self
still rings
and echoes

and I have placed
a stone
in my pocket
to carry with me
always