Some examples of silence

Some examples of silence

Some examples of silence

This is a silence
which is full of bird-call, street sound,
creaking beams of the old house,
crickets off somewhere shrilling

and this is a silence which is
the dark of deep sleep;
not even blackness exists here . . .

This is the silence
of the waves on the shore,
each peaking perfectly,
full of deep seals and fishes,
fine life and the turmoil of stirred sand;

and this is the silence of the heart
beating in the body, without feeling
the valves opening and closing,
of the lungs giving air and taking air

and the wild silence
of the trillion-cell systems
full of purpose and nourishment.

This is the silence
of a parent’s body,
on the mortician’s slab,
old head turned back,
hands showing
the stillness of meat.

This is a sleeping other’s silence
in a night of no sleep
the warmth of the body turning.

This is the silence of no words;
the voice of those
who may not speak,
of those who cannot speak,
those who refuse to speak,
of those whose words are refused;

and this is the silence of hands –
hands holding tools,
hands with food in them,
of empty hands
and hands that hold other hands,
the silence of hands which hold weapons
and the silence of hands which hold up
only themselves against the weapons.

This is the silence of emptiness
wherein all things stir and combine,
the silence of the natural world;
the silence of babies who are not crying
and the silence of babies who cry;

and this is the silence of ending and beginning,
of rain falling, plants growing;
the silence of enduring,
the silence of dust settling.