…Absence Of Sounds

Do you know what’s been most striking to me,
Over the last several hours?

Relative silence…
And a vast absence…of such disturbing noises!
Also smells,

And do you know what this has helped me with?
—Anxiety and rumination;

And this feeling so reminds me, and takes me back,
To that such productive time,

—The peace which existed from just before Christmas,
Extending up until one month hence;
(Though it was lonely— for other reasons, of course);

—For the housemate above me,
Was gone inexplicably,
For all of that lovely time,

And responsible, as he was,
For all of that sound and most of the smoke,
This so allowed me to clear my mind,

—But please don’t misunderstand me,
—I am not assigning him malignity!

For too often, when I state some fact,
And I literally mean—
Simple cause and effect,

—That much is understood
By whomever I’m talking to,
—But upon that understanding is stood,
A tower of emotional interpretations;

So, yes,
It’s mighty clear,
For me to see,
Silence = blessed peace, indeed!

And now this subject has proven itself,
It takes on its own important place,

Within my mind, within my poems,
With a whole new category to its name.

—You see,
I distinctly feel,
More creatively this evening,
This is so clear for me to see!

🌪