The Box Canyon at Laity Lodge is a long way from the Cambridge, England, hometown of poet-priest Malcolm Guite. But no one has looked quite so at home in this space. Malcolm walked up and down the creek bed, inspecting and listening, as if he truly belonged. We merely looked on, happy to be his guests. Nobody dared speak as we collectively tuned in to the sounds of the birds, the breeze, and the distant river. In time, as if in response to something only he could perceive, Malcolm broke the silence with his poem, “Singing Bowl,” the words resonating throughout the Box Canyon:
Stay with the music, words will come in time.
Slow down your breathing. Keep it deep and slow.
Become an open singing-bowl, whose chime
Is richness rising out of emptiness,
And timelessness resounding into time.
And when the heart is full of quietness
Begin the song exactly where you are.
