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,
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.
