Hearing - Or Listening Too? Poem by Fay Slimm

'Do you hear what I say? ' someone may
Impatiently explode one day,
As they discern our thoughts
Have wandered astray.
We all have a tendency sometimes
To drift away,
And, come what may we cannot remember
A thing that was said.

Relationships though will only survive
On keeping alive the art of the ear.
In not just the hearing
But listening too.
Above all the ear must convey
In endearing and comforting way,
That it intends as it bends, to transmit
A message of care.

Before it's too late to salvage a friendship
From petrified state
Give a chance to the Listener's Art.
Quietly impart undivided attention,
Then speak your own part.
Practicing well,
Until the ear speaks to the heart of the other,
Who, satisfied, unbends again.