Struggling to Think

I have never known complete
silence.          Just pin pricks in the backdrop
of white noise,         where darkness seeps
into quiet moments.          Memories rain
into my never empty mind,       daydreams creep
up and worry at my imagination like dogs with bones,
persistent ringing of the telephone,      or the doorbell.
Traffic passes,          sirens echo in the distance.

At the bottom of the garden,     on the moorings,
there’s a man tapping as he fixes his boat
and his radio blares.

My heart pounds,              blood pulses in my ears
and I long for that ephemeral moment,         when I hear
silence.

Kim M. Russell, 2018

Struggling to Think

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar with silence

Björn is our host this Thursday and he says it’s time to talk about silence in poetry. The special silence filled with rhythm and meaning. The caesura. A pause to breathe, to accentuate the meaning.

Björn wants us to focus our writing on these pauses and make them visible. We can take an old or a new poem and mark the pauses with double bars or write a new poem and focus on punctuation to mark the pauses. He says it would be great if we added some notes or a comment on how we think silence and caesurae should be best expressed. I took a phrase from a recent haiku and developed it into a longer poem, separating words and phrases after punctuation by adding tabs, to convey the silence between white noise and other sounds. 

34 thoughts on “Struggling to Think”

    1. Thank you for your kind comments, Frank. That’s exactly what it’s like here some days. Other days, I do have peace and quiet but never silence, what with bird song, tractors, and the man on the mooring!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. So true of our fast passed world. Always multiple noise… even the heater fan and the humidifier and especially the continued ringing in my ears that never ceases. I use white noise/TV to drown out the ringing while I write! Your pauses work really well. The extra spaces give great emphasis.
    Dwight

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Breath-taking and delicious. XX Just pin pricks in the backdrop
    of white noise, where darkness seeps
    into quiet moments. This was haunting. It reminded me of how fast our lives are and how lonely that can sometimes be.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. isn’t it so true that we are inundated with noise all of the time…to the point that when silence actually comes, we sometimes don’t know what to do with it (but enjoying it might be the best response of all!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. The silence is well expressed here. Especially after all that racket. Too bad its not a silence that comes with peace. I could hear and feel it all. Even the disquiet of the silence. Nicely done.

    Pat

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.