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Sound of Silence

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Re-entering a poem I wrote months ago. I reworked it, and added the video to it that belongs to it.

Do you know why silence is so loud? Have you ever heard a sound so loud As silence? I speak the words my mouth can’t say With more than just my lips With much more than my tongue Will you read my hands and words? Will you wait till my mouth said What it wanted? Can you? Can you stay silent for so long? If you have the patience to join our world Of rich and graphic language? Make a wish without your mouth Or spoken words Close your eyes and visualize Be in your mind’s eye And join us there Join our tale! You should see the words float in the air And draw a picture for you, or a film Or a book Will you look at me and my hands and My eyes, and my mouth, and See my words? I wish for you to join me And really understand How can you say it is silence? Do you know why silence is so loud? Have you ever heard a sound so loud? As silence?

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Arthur Vaso

Date: 6/21/2017 10:52:00 PM

I missed this, beautiful Darren!

Darren White
Date: 6/21/2017 10:58:00 PM

Glad you like it :)

Irene Berbert

Date: 1/7/2017 9:41:00 AM

This was very beautiful and so inspiring. Even though I can speak I appreciate the depth of the message . Thank you for this . Perky

Irene Berbert

Date: 1/7/2017 9:37:00 AM

This was very beautiful and so inspiring. Even though I can speak I appreciate the depth of the message . Thank you for this . Perky

Darren White
Date: 1/7/2017 9:46:00 AM

Thank you Irene. I am happy it inspired you.

Deborah Dambani

Date: 1/1/2017 4:17:00 PM

This is so sweet...

Darren White
Date: 1/1/2017 10:48:00 PM

Thank you Deborah

Robert Lindley

Date: 12/24/2016 9:45:00 AM

The great depth of truth in this gem, penetrates without sounds! The mind's eye sees, the words evaporate and the mind feels, knows and ponders! This is truly a gem my friend. Adding to my fav list. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS!

Darren White
Date: 12/24/2016 11:13:00 AM

Thank you so very much for adding my poem to your fav list! And it is true, that is what it is. I wish you a Merry Christmas too!

Caycay Jennings

Date: 12/18/2016 8:54:00 AM

Helen Keller is one of the most amazing people in the world, to me. When Kyle and I would get down about challenges, we'd watch movies about her life. Kyle says hi now and Happy Holidays (he is right beside me with morning coffee.) We enjoyed this - I read it aloud with much appreciation ... CayCay

Darren White
Date: 12/18/2016 8:57:00 AM

Ha, please say HI from me to Kyle :) and wish him (and you all of course) Happy Holidays too!! Yes, Helen Keller is special, so strong. Thanks for reading and commenting CayCay HUGS.

Becca Teagan

Date: 12/17/2016 12:26:00 PM

This is really good Darren... Silence can be deafening . Love the poem as well as the video...

Darren White
Date: 12/18/2016 11:19:00 PM

Thanks Rebecca :) I have been looking for a video to accompany the poem for a long time, there is so much on sign language you can find, but nothing kicks the message in as good and hard as this one does. Yes, silence is deafening. There is so much I could tell about silence and what it does or does not do... And THAT is a nice idea for a next episode of Tick and Leech :)

Becca Teagan
Date: 12/17/2016 12:29:00 PM

oh I just read your comments to Doug.. I liked reading your thoughts...

Eve Roper

Date: 12/16/2016 10:47:00 PM

Darren, very profound poem there is so many ways to say how I feel without having to say a word some time it's hard to express

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 11:06:00 PM

Exactly Eve, sometimes we forget how many means we have to express ourselves without using speech.

Kim Rodrigues

Date: 12/16/2016 10:32:00 PM

Loved it all, Darren! Silence has a meaning all its own and it's profound! 7+

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 10:34:00 PM

Thank you Kim, for the 7+ And yes, I agree with you.

Andrea Dietrich

Date: 12/16/2016 8:37:00 PM

gonna share this with my FB friend. Hope it gets some hits. I love how the video ends. Such a timely comment on today's society.

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 10:33:00 PM

That is okay, go ahead, by all means :) It was on my own FB page months ago, and is on my own blog as well :)

Andrea Dietrich

Date: 12/16/2016 8:36:00 PM

wow, what a great write, Darren.So profound. And the video. LOVED it!! (that is a classic song) SEVEN

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 10:31:00 PM

Thanks Andrea, yes I know about the song. For dramatic effect I like the Disturbed version better and I was so surprised finding it combined with the ASL. Not being able to speak properly has been and is a big part of my life, being silent in a world of people for whom silence is a frightening thing. Thank you for the 7.

Maurice Rigoler

Date: 12/16/2016 7:45:00 AM

There is psyhological truth in silence having sound. I've written my own poem on this subject. We live in a world of too much noise, I prefer silence, it is the soil from which poems grow, at least for me. Thank you for taking the time to read me. Best to you in your writing endeavors. / M

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 8:34:00 AM

Thank you for commenting. Could you please point me to the poem you are referring to? I have tried to find it but I am not sure where to begin. Darren.

Paloma P

Date: 12/16/2016 6:19:00 AM

What Doug said. :) Seriously, you nailed the sound of silence's cacophony Darren.

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 8:33:00 AM

It's loud, isn't it? And yes, what Doug said :)

Anne-Lise Andresen

Date: 12/16/2016 5:33:00 AM

- Silence gets a new image with this video along with your magnificent poem, Darren - the voice and text gives me goosebumps .... WooooW! - A 7 - hugs // Anne-Lise :)

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 10:36:00 PM

WoW Anne-Lise, thank you for the 7 :) And yes, the music does give one goosebumps, doesn't it.

Doug Vinson

Date: 12/16/2016 4:27:00 AM

Darren, great song, great choice of video. Simon and Garfunkle are fantastic songwriters, and as I assume with many, my first thought was that it's sacrilege to have somebody else do it. Sure, but then HOO AHH! Disturbed did a version that stands on its own. Beautiful, backed by a small orchestra. Have to say that a good string section will make me cry, faster than anything. So, then, on to the themes in your poem.

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 5:06:00 AM

9. Yes, "uncomfortable with silence," but how bad is it, really? Ugh - I am reminded of many TV programs that are just constant noise, never a break in it. Unless you count the interrupting commercials, which are even louder... : (

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 4:47:00 AM

2) They tend to fill up the silence with either completing sentences I didn't want to speak, or by endless chatter that I do understand, but is quite frustrating. I am going to do a course in sign language, and that hopefully opens up a new group of people to communicate with :) Thanks for the reply!

Darren White
Date: 12/16/2016 4:45:00 AM

1) That is quite a speech Doug :) I agree with everything you write. A little bit about me. I stutter so badly that with almost all people I don't speak, I write on notepads, or on my tablet and communicate that way. This is quite challenging, and it is also the reason I wrote this poem. I notice that people are uncomfortable with silence, and even more so with stammerers.

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:35:00 AM

2.The volume of silence is because it's that wall of the infinite, it's that tsunami ocean wave that races at you, over you, and you are tumbling in its wake with your ears ringing, or roaring, that mighty roar of the sea, even in the conch shell, even in the deaf mariner's eyes. Well, that is one way to say it, and whether or not one really subscribes thereto, many people fear silence.

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:34:00 AM

3.Many people cannot stand to be alone with themselves. That's really it - the fear of being alone, no matter how we communicate. What if there is nobody else there? What if there will be nobody to connect with us? Do we even really want to go down that road, to find what is there, in the silence, in ourselves? It can be a lonely world in there. Can that be part of our lives?

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:32:00 AM

4.It was the sixth song Paul Simon ever wrote. He was 21, living with his parents, and there was some post-teenage angst, some alienation he was feeling, and that's what the song is about. There was too much silence for him - he'd go into the bathroom and turn the water on - he liked the sound of it, and he'd play his guitar. All the sounds would echo off the bathroom tiles, increasing them.

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:31:00 AM

5.Amazingly, Paul Simon is now 75 years old. He and Art Garfunkle's first album was released in 1964, subtitled, "Exciting new sounds in the folk tradition." The timing was not great - this was when Beatlemania was rushing across the U.S., a tsunami of its own, and only about 2000 records were sold; flop city. Simon moved to England, played in little venues, met a girl and fell in love.

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:30:00 AM

6. It was a carefree, peaceful time for him. Back in the U.S. Simon and Garfunkle's producer decided to alter the song, overdubbing it with drums and electric and bass guitars. That version eventually went to #1 on U.S. pop music charts, and then Simon had to choose. Did he stay in England with the life he now loved, or did he go back to the U.S. and really chase fame?

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:29:00 AM

7.He went back - I think here he was choosing not to follow the silence as much. No great loss for the world - he reconnected with many things as his artistic life progressed. Darren, you speak of "rich and graphic language." Perhaps we cannot stay silent for so long, but that good language can grow within us even while we are without sound, without communication.

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 4:28:00 AM

8.That richness can be whether it's in signing, in the written word, in a painting, a musical composition, etc., and I see most people leaning toward the "more is better" thing, there. I would assert that the silent side, too, has benefits. We want to communicate with others, with the world, but it's better done when we can commune with ourselves in thought, in solitude, embracing the silence.

Deborah Burch

Date: 12/15/2016 10:32:00 PM

*tear* Solid!! Darren!

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:34:00 PM

Thanks Deb :) and don’t cry!

Claudia Polydoro

Date: 12/15/2016 7:16:00 PM

I loved this poem from the first time I read it, Darren... A few years ago, I worked in a pharmaceutical company and we had some deaf co-workers, and they taught me a few (very few) signs and the alphabet (in Brazil is called LIBRA and not ASL)... I always thought that sign language was beautiful... like you said, you draw the words in the air... Great poem, my friend <3

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:34:00 PM

It is beautiful yes. And a complete language with its own rules. I knew you would have read it before <3

Frederic Parker

Date: 12/15/2016 6:31:00 PM

Hello silence my old friend I've come to talk to you again " Paul Simon "...really liked the questions your poem asked

Doug Vinson
Date: 12/16/2016 3:30:00 AM

Right on, Frederick. One of my all-time-favorite songs. My mom had all the S&G albums when we kids were growing up, including both the acoustic and the electric versions of this one.

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:32:00 PM

Yes :) I am glad the person in the video chose the interpretation of 'Disturbed', for its dramatical effect.

Chris Green

Date: 12/15/2016 4:11:00 PM

There is no sound louder than silence because we not only hear silence but we feel it deeply, it creates intimidating thoughts in our minds, some lonely, some fearful and some we'd rather not think about at all. Though at times silence can be a nice escape, when you are expecting to hear something else and all you hear is silence, it is deafening. Very loudly expressed Darren.

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:30:00 PM

That's very complete, Chris. Yes, it's all that and add to it that most people are afraid of silence and try to fill the void. Thanks :)

Alexis Y.

Date: 12/15/2016 4:06:00 PM

I posted the comment before I saw the video. Sometimes I don't see them write away on my android cellphone. The video gives more depth to a write that's already deep: -) Alexis

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:21:00 PM

It does, doesn't it :)

Alexis Y.

Date: 12/15/2016 4:01:00 PM

WoW! Darren, you have penned a powerful and impacful write. You draw the reader into this introspective write very well. I found this write to be thought provoking as also. I don't know the answers to your questions but you've peaked my curiosity . You've penned some good poetry. Excellent job. A without a doubt seven:-) Alexis

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:21:00 PM

A7. Thank you, Alexis :) I hoped it would make the reader think, I guess I succeeded.

Space Cadet

Date: 12/15/2016 3:13:00 PM

Very introspective read. Thank you for sharing. - Wesley C.

Darren White
Date: 12/15/2016 11:14:00 PM

Thanks Wesley, yes it is introspective