-- Real Silence --

John Herlihy

How to know what real silence may sound like;

Ask the one born in total silence as deaf/dumb.

The awesome arc of the silent eagle in flight;

Entering the hollow interior of an empty drum.

I asked a dumb friend how he did silence endure.’

How he appreciated it without a sense of sound?

He replied with hands: my silence absolute, pure.

And I thought, like listening, my ear to the ground.

What does it mean: Hear nothing but feel something?

As if a fence erected to preserve a sense of wisdom.

In hearing nothing, imagine a way to hear everything;

Other senses elevated when a person born deaf/dumb.

The light of dawn slowly rises and what does one hear?

Nothing at all, the silence heightened by quiescent light.

The fading light of twilight as eternity approaches near;

The light gives way to darkness in the silence of the night.

Then the ever-present silence of the unspoken word,

The theft of sheer intimacy in emotions as we speak.

The whispers, eloquence, raving madness ever heard,

All the lilting, recited poetry to render our hearts meek.

Do you accept this eternal silence, I asked my friend?

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation, “I most certainly do.

Not for the silence, but for the beauty without any end,

A silence extending far beyond anything you ever knew.”

Such resignation, I said to myself, acceptance of fate,

Never wanting the very thing that we can never have.

Accepting life’s realities relieves their burden of weight,

The heightened awareness of the other senses as salve.

He had what no other one had, a silence with promise;

Such silence never listened to, such silence never heard.

An eternal silence in this world that would serve as solace,

To replace wind chimes, tolling of bells and whisper of words.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Wednesday 8 December 2021