Solitude
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1
The hollow places of the world are like an infant’s breath, rarely noticed or heard. Yet a father leans his ear close, listening for the in- and exhalation.
Or they are like the recessed nook of this old abandoned building, tucked out of sight and covered by brush, where the hawk, having caught his prey, hides away and does his grisly work.
Few dare crawl into the recesses, where the winged one may penetrate the skull with its sharp beak, and suck the soul right out, or carry one aloft, to a place unknown.
2
I crawl in and poke about, searching for clues amidst the bones of the terrified, and find, written on the bark in some ancient script,
what it is we must learn: around the hollow places revolves the busy world, that, terrified of a presence unseen, refuses to know its own quiet center. [End Page 131]
I stake out a place, and wait, listening, listening. The wind whirls about and filters through the brush— gently, rhythmically. It is lonely. severe. comfortable. [End Page 132]
Kenneth Garcia is the Associate Director of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of “Academic Freedom and the Service Theologians Must Render the Academy” (Horizons, Spring 2011). His book, Academic Freedom and the Telos of the Catholic University will be published in 2012 by Palgrave MacMillan. kgarcia@nd.edu
