Lake Sariklen

Zinaida Mirkina's work does not fit into any rigidly defined religious tradition, not because it contradicts them, but because it creates an experience of dialogue among various traditions. Nor does her work fit into rigidly defined literary genres, not because it contradicts them, but because it says more than poetry or prose usually says.
"The deepest hours of my life pass in contemplation. As inner silence gradually grows, I hear more and more clearly the words of the wordless and the most important Word. This hearing is absolutely precise and even, perhaps, concrete. But of course it is not the ears, but the ultimate depth of the soul that listens and hears what the trees, the forest, the sea, the mountains, the sky, and the light say—above all, the light. I hear great tidings! All my life I have written only about what I hear. But it is so difficult to convey!...
First of all—there is a burning feeling that everything is alive. No, not only man with his reason and words, not only animals with their reason without words—everything: trees and sky, river and sea, and the light, which especially at sunset and dawn I feel as the gaze of God Himself. Everything speaks with my heart, fills it with the highest meaning, overflows it with jubilation. What jubilation!
If the whole world, all people, told me that I was mistaken—what would that matter to me?! I live! I love! My heart is overflowing.
Silence. And fullness of attention. Not only words but even thoughts have fallen silent. That is where hearing begins. Not invention, not imagination, but hearing."