I like to listen to slam poetry on occasion and I thought this one was particularly good.
Smith portrays silence as a very negative thing. Of course it can be beautiful and necessary too. Billy Collins reminds us of many silences we may never consider. I like the end when silence piles up like snow.
Silence
Billy
Collins
There
is the sudden silence of the crowd
above
a player not moving on the field,
and
the silence of the orchid.
The
silence of the falling vase
before
it strikes the floor,
the
silence of the belt when it is not striking the child.
The
stillness of the cup and the water in it,
the
silence of the moon
and
the quiet of the day far from the roar of the sun.
The
silence when I hold you to my chest,
the
silence of the window above us,
and
the silence when you rise and turn away.
And
there is the silence of this morning
which
I have broken with my pen,
a
silence that had piled up all night
like
snow falling in the darkness of the house—
the
silence before I wrote a word
and
the poorer silence now.
Source:
Poetry (April 2005).
3 comments:
Boy! I am never going to show this poem to Pierre, the silence killer! This is going to justify his chat-chat-chat, talk-talk-talk. Nope. Sorry, I understand the point of view of this poem but, to me, married to a (retired) professor for close to thirty six years, in other words a professional talker, silence is a precious gem, an oasis, paradise.
I must agree. I love the silence. Having the tv turned off for days in a row is heaven to my ears. The silences will be short lived when I return to school next Monday.
Thanks for sharing. I am learning to appreciate silence in a new way.
Love Mary Bragg's work.
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