My stillness is not quiet
The world of turmoil and deprivation
does not go unnoticed
The letters to the editor I write
in my mind before I push
my newly awake self out of bed,
These manifests of political wisdom
will not be written
my messages will not be heeded.
Those, my letters, will not be sent.

I can't ease nor erase the platitudes,
the shameful acceptance of conformist certainties
the prevalence of irrational truths
The common acceptance of injustices.

No Don Quixote, I will not right the social wrongs.
But I will not choose blindness.
My stillness is not quiet.

There is a switch from dream sleep to awake.
Thoughts find words, questions seek answers.
Dissatisfactions and celebrations,
Contradictions meld wisdom and worry,
incapable of separation.

Weary, I nod and I smile
I risk no offending,
But know
My stillness is not quiet.

Harold Garde splits his time between Belfast and New Smyrna Beach, Fla. He is a painter with work in permanent museum and significant private collections. He is the subject of several art films that have been broadcast on Public Television in Florida, Maine and Wyoming, including one in the ongoing Maine Masters series. His play, The Rec Room, was selected and performed in the Maine Fifteen Minute Play competition and later at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida.

Transformations
We tell stories.
We tell stories to make sense of our lives.
We tell stories to communicate our experience of being alive.
We tell stories in our own distinct voice. Our own unique rhythm and tonality.

Transformations is a weekly story-telling column. The stories are written by community members who are my students. Our stories are about family, love, loss and good times. We hope to make you laugh and cry. Maybe we will convince you to tell your stories.
— Kathrin Seitz, editor, and Cheryl Durbas, co-editor

"Everyone, when they get quiet, when they become desperately honest with themselves, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there." — Henry Miller

Kathrin Seitz teaches Method Writing in Rockport, New York City and Florida. She can be reached at kathrin@kathrinseitz.com. Cheryl Durbas is a freelance personal assistant in the Midcoast area. She can be reached at cheryldurbas@tidewater.net.