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The Arrival of Sound

Once upon a long time, The silence blanketed my world Like snow covering an arctic forest. The nooks and crannies of my days Were filled with the wispy webs of quietude Worked by whispering limbs Mine was a vast tundra Of silence Across which great unheard herds Of thoughts could roam Freely, gambol and graze Encountering nothing to disturb them Rivulets of words Gathered and trickled Over the schisty shingles Of my mind Eons passed But one cold, silent, snow flaked January morning A pioneer strode manfully, meaningfully Into my wilderness without warning. Falling in love with all that he saw He began to sharpen his axe. Now the hordes of herds have all but disappeared And the rivulets have been dammed and channelled Into a thousand subterranean pipes And there is TV and MTV and DVD and MP3 And my world Is rich with sound.

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Courtney Moita

Date: 6/25/2021 2:46:00 AM

I love the sounds of the words in this poem, was it inspired by a particular event?

Barry Freeman
Date: 6/27/2021 3:11:00 PM

Yes, partially inspired by my having spent time in the Tasmanian Wilderness during the campaign (successful) to stop the damming of the Franklin River. Unlike the tropical rainforsets the arctic rainforests are incredibly quiet and I spent a month there getting used to the extreme silence and being with my thoughts. Later when I walked into the workers camp to chain myself to a piece of machinery to get arrested, I was struck by how loud even a little bit of that world was.

Barry Freeman
Date: 6/27/2021 3:11:00 PM

Later still when I returned to the urban jungle, I almost suffered agorophobia and had to struggle to leave the house or ride on a bus. The traffic was terrifying.