The Silence of Thunder
By John Herlihy

The lightness of footsteps
No sound under my feet.
The silence of violin strings
Holds back its rhythm and beat.

The silence of snow
Contains its own mystical song,
Bringing an abiding peace in tow,
Sacred emotion that will never gong,

The silence of thunder
Contains mystical wonder.
Lightning shocks us with its blunder;
But thunder steals the heart as plunder.

Lightning patiently waits,
Holding a light we cannot see.
It too contains a silence,
Only wishing to be free.

Human emotions wear silence
Under a warm winter cloak;
They lie hidden and protected
Until they are seized and stoked.

The silence of thunder
Now awakens to living sound.
Lightning has left it behind,
So it grumbles to anyone around.

The silence of thunder
Now bellows and roars like a lion.
The silence of Heaven will have its say;
Nothing and no one can say to it nay.

The sky with darkening clouds replete;
The rain descends like a billowing sheet.
The wind tears tree branches asunder;
No one can steal away Heaven’s thunder.

The rumble of thunder
Now diminishes amid distant cloud;
Thunder surrenders its right to be loud,
As it disappears quietly within its shroud.