Nick Penna: "Waiting in Line"

[Curator's note: Nick Penna was in fifth grade when he wrote this poem.]

When you listen you reach
into dark corners and
pull out your wonders.
When you listen your
ideas come in and out
like they were waiting in line.
Your ears don’t always listen.
It can be your brain, your
fingers, your toes.
You can listen anywhere.
Your mind might not want to go.
If you can listen you can find
answers to questions you didn’t know.
If you have listened, truly
listened, you don’t find your
self alone.

"Waiting in Line" by Nick Penna, from Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making, by John Fox. © Jeremy P. Tarcher Putnam, 1997.

Photograph: Detail of "Boy Listening to a Conch Shell with a Girl Standing Behind Him," by Purestock (originally color).