"That Quiet Place..."

Some things come across totally diferent AFTER you hear it once... just saying

Some things come across totally different AFTER you really hear it once... just saying

What is silence…  What IS …silence?  A hard question - a harder answer - hmmm.  We always seem to look for ‘that-quiet-place’ - you know the one I mean?  The one where we can relax, unwind, be just ourselves as we SEE ourselves to be…
the one where we can THINK our big thoughts, dream our dreams OUR way, do whatever WE want as we want WHEN we want.  And then - just sometimes, it finds us instead of us finding it.

And suddenly we aren’t ready somehow… or maybe it just wasn’t the place we thought it would be… or maybe it WAS exactly the place - we thought it would be…

“That-Quiet-Place…”

“Hello…”  silence…

Step, pause -- step

“Hello?”  R&B on the radio,
Click -- Jeremiah on the TV…
moving room by room...

Turning on, looking, breathing…
“hello…”
Loreena McKennitt in the BlueRay player,
step, step

…drip, thud…drip, thud

kitchen faucet on…

…then off…then on…
“hello… hello…”

shower - blasting steam billows
sinks and tub joining the crowd…

...white noise, white noise...
“hello… hello…”
empty washer blaring its dissonance
dryer joining the melody…
“Hello…”
...every light glowing,
maybe with EVERY light glowing
"HELLO..."
every light

reaching… reaching…

into the echoing …silence

a last hello… one last hello…
one last will make the difference
yes one last…

and I can't anymore
I just CAN'T

anymore

anymore.

 

“hello?”

 

Chris

 

You can listen to this one at:

 

http://www.worldpoetryopenmic.net/uploads/5/1/8/3/5183702/wpom-2015-01-23.mp3

World Poetry Open Mic  Archive

 

This is my second presentation of the show and it begins at 2:04:10.  I read on this MP3 file "An Afternoon Midnight's Reverie..." as number 6 of the first segment and this poem as number 7 of the second

Author's Note

feel free

Reviews

[Einstein Noodle]

very interesting ...lives can be so busy and cluttered even in our places of comfort and alleged quietude ;) funny this poem popped to my attention as just minutes ago i let me doggie out ... i am an early riser so it was no "chore" at all ... but i live in the Ozark Mountains and the lack of wind in the trees always provides that kind of meditative quality of silence ... of "no-mind" ;) your a hippies spirit Chris! unique in voice and focus says i!

[Stephany]

Conversations with and between those and things that share our space with us. Sometimes it seems the silence is yelling at us, other times we can not find it at all. If we are fortunate, we find the moments that fill the desire, maybe not every day, but often enough to help the sanity stay within reach.

[Susan 🦋]

A quiet place? as long as we breathe is there such a place? But, I believe there is a 'silence' when focused on appreciation. I've stood in awe at a million dewdrops balanced on each blade of grass..the sunlight touching and the spakle just mezmorizing. I can recall holding my newborn daughter and knowing how soon she will be grown. I can still feel that moment. Maybe it's no so much the noise but which "silence" we chose to linger in.

[kentuck14]

Chris,
What an exciting poem! very innovative! Man, is your home always that noisy!?
Tom

[Chris]

Life as we live it ~ seldom as we want it...

[J. J. Nightingale]

Listening to me
answering.. me
Conversations with cats
and photos
and inanimates ..
Ringing in the ears
white noise, as you say
days
nights
seasons bland
inside hurts, a lot
can't wait
for the Spring
of life...
Love


HELLO Chris !!!...♥

[Chris]

Hi Jazz... The cold was ..."interesting". How about down your way?

[J. J. Nightingale]

Worried a bit about YOU.in that cold...brrr,,. ..60's for me..windy, with blue skies ..

[Rebecca Hope Rouston]

The fact that this is preformed at an open mic makes me feel the rhythm even more. I feel the soul in this and the description of the setting was brilliant.

[Chris]

Some listened and some read and a few have done both. "Hello."

[Rebecca Hope Rouston]

i prefer to read, but it still made a great read. which isn't easy to do, so bravo!

[LazerRays]

Silence is a chance to discover ourselves amongst the chaos. Maybe if we took the time to just relax and let the silence wash over us, we'd be cleaned of stress for a bit. Life is definitely a jumbled mess and as you get older we start to appreciate the silence even more. Funny how as a child, silence is unbearable. this was very nice, with a nice message. I like it :)

[emmajoy]

Your way of writing is always or almost always, conversational, you to you, smiles and tears making their own way! Seems you ponder now and again, chuckling then move on gently, smoothly - '.. And then - just sometimes, it finds us instead of us finding it. '

Tis said that there's no such thing as silence except for being between life and death, dawn and sunset: and, that silence is gone before you realise it existed. For me that rings true. But you add, '.. And suddenly we aren’t ready somehow… or maybe it just wasn’t the place we thought it would be… or maybe it WAS exactly the place - .. '

As to spending time alone, lonely: surely there's a vast difference between those two words. Feeling lonely is being squashed into a vast crowd yet not being aware or touched by anyone else. Being alone is a happier, friendlier place because the choice to be just Self, is yours. Put the silence and Self go gether - and the music is hauntingly part of the Spriit. Perhaps. Need come go, come back, try to understand what YOU feel, not how you think.. .

[‘Thoughts In Time..]

Its not- always as we think it is or will be- the calm within needs to be calmed we can search and not find we can hide the hidden to only be found by us over and over- there where we need to meet it- the heart can be s noisy chamber thsts needs to balance the mind- hoping u r well🌹

[Chris]

still attending the sunrise... sometimes coffee sometimes tea.

[a82091]

Very interesting poem and interesting writing style!

[Chris]

Hi and welcome to my thoughts Ava... noce of you to pause.