-- The Sounds of Silence --

John Herlihy

Birds sing and flutter their wings as whispers,

The soaring eagle cries and marsh frogs croak.

We listen to sawing of crickets and buzzing of bees,

Wake-up call of the rooster, braying of the donkey.

Yet a serene mantle of silence hovers over nature;

None of us unfamiliar with serenity in twilight hush.

Early risers familiar with the quiet first light of dawn,

The beauty of butterflies, the sanctified glow of fireflies.

Ocean waves roar but wavelets utter but soft sound;

Rivers glide silently by while brooks murmur in reticence.

Shifting desert sands move stealthily across the ground;

Wind howls as a wolf, but breeze utters charmed sound.

Ants go about their business but we hear not what they say;

The earth rotates on its axis with rhythms we never notice.

The spinning earth moves silently in orbit around the sun.

While the sun itself flows in a spiraling galaxy, all in silence.

In moments of heightened awareness, silence expresses sound;

In gazing at the night sky, we imagine the music of the spheres.

When dawn’s first light creeps over the horizon, earth awakens;

The waning moon dies a slow death, the silence heard as hymn.

Instances of nature, beauty so acute we can something hear;

As if touched by a magic wand, such beauty we need not hear.

Silence within motion, the descent of winter snow so acute;

To touch the silence within us, as we stand there utterly mute.

Exquisite sounds of silence echo to a rhythm all their own;

We will never even hear them, if we don’t attempt to listen.

Seeds planted into our hearts that are nurtured homegrown;

The silent sounds make way into the soul as lights that glisten.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Monday 17 May 2020