Silent benches

Silent benches wait new men and women for work and soon the stillness will break into spheres of creative work. I watch, listen, as men did me near fifty years ago and think the seeds so planted then live still as vital in my work today.

I wonder how my work progresses yet in lives of those who listen, watch and wait their time to pass their practiced skills and so conserve the vibrancy of real work in skill to others yet to know.

My hands are stilled from work for while I watch, my mind, in sensing how they work, listens and I hear the planes and the saws that cut now straight and true ‘neath practiced hands.

I feel a swelling in my chest that others rarely know for as I sow a living seed brings new skill born in others yet to know the wellness of my work and so I watch and watch as others grow.