Finding Peace

I’ve found peace many a time;

peace on cold lonely mountains,
peace within ancient monasteries,
peace in green-shrouded backwaters,
peace by my window at midnight,
peace always alone and serene.

But I found peace most intense
while sitting on a black stone bench
with white graffiti scrawled over it
by the harbor, above the docks.
It was not the calm of silence,
but of delicate sounds
of cars in the distance,
of wind on sails and water,
and of the stars tiptoeing out;
the calm of no one speaking.
The skyline fell away on either side
as far as my eyes could follow.
Magnificent spires framed the bay,
bright lights sparkling in the distance as
the sky bled orange blurry clouds to
drip into the bowl of the ocean’s horizon.
The peace sifted through the humid air
to settle as golden dust on my shoulders.
I breathed out, and snuggled into the arms
and the smile of the one next to me.