Gentleness

Written for my 5th Class Students' Character Class

Sometimes a whisper is stronger than a shout

Sometimes silence can be the most loud

There are some walls only gentleness can break down

And all storms are best weathered with calm.

A whisper echoes in our mind, intimate,

There is expectation, there is strength,

A whisper draws us in.

A whisper says “I see you, yes, you,

And I care but...”

Sometimes silence speaks the deepest love,

Mercy is a silence,

Listening is a silence.

And sometimes gentleness just says

The most with a smile or nod of a head.

Nothing can break into a barred heart

Like a simple hug.

And a raised fist could never inflict as much damage

As the lowered eyes of one who loves.

You never yelled, you just firmly placed your hand on my arm,

Telling me everything I needed to know.

Quick to listen, slow to speak,

Slow to become angry. 

An open hand can always hold more than a fist,

And to shake hands you must unclench them.

Gentleness, people think gentleness is crazy

They treat it like a baby, but when you meet somebody

So strong as to not demand their own way,

So strong that you can interrupt them, bulldoze them,

And they still just stand strong and wait,

It is unsettling.

When you meet someone so strong that they won’t fight you even when you want to,

When they smile and ask “what’s wrong?”

It changes you.

Do you see how the rain comes with gentleness?

How the mother duck leads out her young,
How fragile the universe is,

How easily we break one another.

Our clumsy fat fingers can cause catastrophe

Just by touching a moth’s wings;

A candle can be snuffed out if you’re not careful

How you breathe.

Gentleness doesn’t bust in the door, demanding,

Gentleness doesn’t need to yell or flail.

It’s the slow drip of rain becoming a river,

It’s the quiet persistent knocking at the door.

Gentleness can, and gentleness will,

But there’s nothing to prove and

No need to make a scene

When we move with grace,

The mountains will give way.

So if you want to move the world,

Learn how to sing lullabies,

Learn how to breathe deep, like

sunsets or morning dew

If you want to be strong,

There must be a strength inside you.

That is always moved,

But never rashly.

That is always concerned,

But never worried.

If you want to be the strongest man in the world.

You must learn how to wait

And breathe.