What Silences Say

This poem can be read in several ways. It explores the theme of silence, among others. The brackets can be read in many ways: emphasizing the words within, as if the words have been removed, with no audible difference, etc. Each way of reading the brackets alters the meaning and sense of the line but keeps the main theme/message whole.


Enjoy,

- F. L.

Are you listening?

-Listening to what the silences say;

The (gaps) between words

And (spaces) between glances

Between (the seen and) the heard

Between (pauses and) second chances

Between what is and what may

Are you listening?

It’s in the flutter of autumn leaves

It’s in the floating winter’s flakes

It’s in the patter of distant spring

It’s in the summer and in the wake

I’ve been listening-

I’ve been listening for (all) my life

To authority’s (steady) voices

To the rambling of my mind

To the plethora of choices

And through (the wastings of) my time...

And the hollow (music) rife

With silences

I’ve been listening

In autumn’s floating leaves

In winter’s fluttering flakes

In spring’s distant patter

In summer’s shadowed wake

Listening

To what the silences forgot;

To past (and present) tied

By ponderous (muted) string

To noise and shouts belied

As another (dumbshow) thing

(The sounds) signified as rot

Are you listening?

To decaying

Pale leaves mouldering

White flakes congealing

Black drops pattering

Red sky mummifying

Are you listening now?

Between

And in-between

The silences

There is much to hear.