But it is on the spaces where there is nothing xxxxx that the usefulness of the house depends. Therefore, just as we take we should recognize xxxxx the usefulness of what is not. Poetry's not the art of words only. Poetry's what's before and after words. Silence is the sea through which sound swims, like flitting fish.
Art renews our connection to silence.
In the emerging interfaith dialogue, our silent devotion knits us together. No one starts the meeting. The teen-agers agree that it's cool, how the silence always seems to happen on its own. The city outside seems to vanish, though rumbling Second Avenue is just across Stuyvesant Square from the simple but striking facade of the dark red weathered brick meeting house.