Seventy Years of Silence

I read about you, Sr. Teresa Maxwell;

your obituary caught my eye.

I saw in the news, in March of this year

that your earthly spirit died.

You were born in Nineteen eleven,

the youngest of sixteen.

Did you choose a silent order as

it promised to be serene?

You took the Habit in

nineteen thirty three.

You made your Solemn

Profession in 'thirty-seven.

Were you able to be wordless

through those years by

envisioning God in heaven?

I imagine seventy years of silence--

I think I'd have gone insane.

Yet when I think of all that I've said,

so much of it is inane.

As life goes on, I promise you Sister,

I will remember your choice.

You gave up what we take for granted--

the sound of your own voice.

When life makes me surrender something,

I'll bow to you in my selfish mind.

Sister, you were a Carmelite nun,

and you lived to be ninety-five.