Listen | pictured words

Twenty Twenty Five

My year’s focus word
is listen. I chose it, not
knowing what’s to come.

The last twenty days,
I see myself shouting on
social media.

The need to be heard
in daunting times is real, but
shouting gets tuned out,

so is left unheard.
And yet, the need is still there.
I can’t help but shout.

The last twenty days,
my listening turned to an
Intense need to scream.

I don’t scream outdoors
out of respect and care for
all of my neighbors.

I don’t scream indoors
for fear of terrifying
my loving husband.

I scream inside me,
silently, lest I drown out
my God’s still, small voice.

© Marie Elena Good, 2025

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August 29, 2018

LISTEN TO HEAR

Agreement is not crucial.
Kindness is.
Divergence is not futile.
Blindness is.

In one way or another,
We should learn
To hear our diverse brothers –
Not to spurn.

© Marie Elena Good

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April 6, 2017

HEARING IS NOT THE SAME AS LISTENING

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Photo by Keith R. Good

“Hearing is Not the Same as Listening” ~ Sarah Elizabeth (my young, wise, single-mom cousin)

Grunts, yelps, shrieks,
laughs, and cries
are Kenzie’s only tools of communication.
But this morning was different.
This morning, as Sarah readied the children for school,
the pattern of Kenzies “noise” sounded suddenly familiar.
All preparations halted, as Sarah began to sing
lines from a Veggie Tales movie.

Kenzie made eye contact.

EYE CONTACT.

Then Sarah and Kenzie began alternating lines.

No one has heard Kenzie utter a word in years.
Yet all this time she has been singing, unnoticed.

And now Sarah will sing with Kenzie
a hundred times in an hour
if that’s what she wants.

In the cacophony of life,
listen
and hear
cadence,
harmony,
and even dissonance.
For sometimes a solo
hungers for harmony.

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