Hello – my name is Steve DeLaney. I work and write in southeastern Virginia. This blog is a way to share with and listen to a wider community, and offer my poetry and writing as my part of the conversation.
The name of the site – “Again, Whisper” – rose out of work on a poem. The poem did not become what I had hoped, but those words were interesting to me. I think they came from a memory of the Biblical story where Elijah is hiding in the cave, and the wind roars, and the earthquake shakes the mountains, and the fire rages… but none of those are the presence he seeks. And then there is a stillness, a whisper, a hint.
And that is it. I also like the sense of a whisper as a way to say something that matters, the way we tell a secret, or the way we talk to scared child…It is not forced, but a gentle offering. And when someone whispers, we tend to quiet ourselves so we can hear.
I think the “again” is a way of reminding myself to return to that kind of speech – thoughtful, gentle, a speech that can attend to what matters most. And it is also a kind of prayer – asking that great presence to speak again, to whisper once more to us.
My son Ben (age 6).
Again whisper 