No Words

There is no such thing as complete
silence. Just no spoken words.
There is the muffled pad of socked feet
across the kitchen floor; the clock’s tick
tock; the soft and loud song of birds;
wind in trees and the creak of a branch;
the hum of bees and distant traffic;
white noise in the middle of the night;
the low rumble of a cat’s purr; the internal plod
of a heart beat; the busy scratch of a pen
or fingers tapping on a keyboard.
All are useful sounds that hatch a poem,
a symphony of unspoken words…

Until someone reads it aloud.

Kim M. Russell, 1st May 2024

Image by Aaron Burdon on Unsplash

Mary is hosting at What’s Going On? today with a prompt of silence, and she has shared not only the Pentonix version of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ but also some very beautiful poems:  ‘Silence’ by Billy Collins, ‘The Death of Silence’ by Robin Ekiss, ‘The Snow Arrives after a Long Silence’ by Nancy Willard, and ‘Silent Music’ by Floyd Skloot – I couldn’t choose a favourite.

I’m with Mary when it comes to silence; I enjoy it, but then it is never really completely silent. Mary would like us to write about silence: what comes to mind when we consider the word; where we experience silence that is pleasant, or unpleasant; and describe a silent place.

Also linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night on 23rd May 2024.

61 thoughts on “No Words”

  1. I really like the concept of this poem, Kim! Even in the “silence,” there is sound if one truly listens. For me now, “the sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard.” ”A symphony of unspoken words” — I like that too. I enjoyed the picture you added to your poem as well!

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  2. Yes, I agree, there’s no complete silence. Love how you’ve captured the ‘symphony of unspoken words’. Now we are missing ” the soft and loud song of birds; / wind in trees” because of the heat wave. Beautifully penned, Kim.

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  3. “the internal plod
    of a heart beat; the busy scratch of a pen
    or fingers tapping on a keyboard.”

    I like that these are all together. For me, they are pretty much the same thing.❤️

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  4. I love this – and the fact that, in order to hear the beautiful sounds listed, one has to stop talking. Smiles. I love the humour in the closing lines too.

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  5. I like all your sounds of silence….a symphony of unspoken words. I don’t like spoken poetry…the mind’s voice is my preference. Lovely poem.

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  6. I agree, all of Mary’s examples were wonderful, and i had only read one of them before today. Your poem describes the non-silence of silence–if you will–with such marvelous descriptors. Just yesterday I was grooving on the sound my pen was making on the paper it wrote upon. Give me small things like that over the usual brass band (as mentioned in Sherry’s poem) 6 days a week and twice on Sunday.

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  8. Lovely, Kim! Your idea of silence-not-silence is wonderful. It also reminds me of what a mentor of mine used to call “the other conversation,” by which he meant the sort of non-verbal communication we all engage in all the time, whether we acknowledge it or not. Great post!

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  13. What a lovely soundscape you beguile us with here, Kim! I could hear them all as you described them, especially “the muffled pad of socked feet” and “the busy scratch of a pen.” 🙂

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  14. So true! Those softer sounds do lend to the atmosphere, whether we’re even aware. I love the examples you give throughout this piece and the contrast of “a symphony of unspoken words”.

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  15. Such a lovely poem that whispers all those sounds that are a soft soundtrack to our lives…. mind you birdsong is as good as silence and I don’t hear the tinnitus! I also like the scratch of a busy pen.

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  18. This is one of my favorite poems of yours, Kim! All those sound elements are perfectly chosen and woven together, delighting the reader as we imagine them. The close is at once surprising, and yet somehow expected, as it so fitting.

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  19. You gifted us a poem that inspires deep thought about what ‘silence’ really means, what it is. I am reminded of a former coworker who lost his hearing a decade or so ago. He attempted describing his silence but had no words … he was fitted with a cochlear implant, that was the best possible news.

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  20. A beautiful poem, Kim. I couldn’t pick a favorite line. And it’s so true that what we think of as silence is not. There are chambers that are made completely silent–apparently people cannot stay in them for very long.

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  21. The illusory silence that anyone who has ever tried to meditate realises is assaulted – be it ever so quietly – in all the ways your great poem articulated Kim…

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