"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

[Saddam]

Enjoy this write, also the link was very interesting.

[David Scott]

Is silence the absence of an answer or the respite of asking the question?
Maybe when we are ready to be in our quiet place we will find ourselves within the peaceful unconfined, undefined quiet; beyond time, space and place?
You have given me a thought beyond direction, line or definition.
Amazing poem Chris. I am loving the philosophical implications here.

[Chris]

I hope all goes well with you... and it is good hearing your thoughts.

[David Scott]

"It is well with my soul". :)
Thank you for sharing.

[Valentine]

I may be taking this wrong, but that may be what you are thinking will happen when you do read your poem on the radio. I have a Teflon filled vocal chord so I would sound pretty low. Kathie

[Chris]

coming back to an empty place...even a mind can be... shaken

[Valentine]

I have lived in too loud of places...born into a family of 9 children...and I have known silence. Fighting seizures for ten year where one hears nothing, just shakes... and wears a tooth brace. I am well now and find myself still longing for that alone time to write and just be me, without others starring at me lying jerking like an idiot. People can be cruel/ Valentine Silence is Golden.

[Josie E. Cook M. A.]

I haven't listened to it yet...but will.
I love a quiet place, however the silence is never there because of the persistent hum in my ears that will not go away. Some kind of background noise--frustrating!

I love how you captured the everyday interruptions in life
and made it about your title.

[blue cave]

a lot to take in here Chris...
my favorite line: it finds us instead of us finding it
I so feel the darkness in all that light....

[Chris]

That is what poetry is - a lot to take in... It was nice of you to pause...

[Delmar Cooper]

Will look up this on WPOM archive when I get computer repaired. At Library just now mooching off my tax dollar.

[Chris]

Good place to be... I could appreciate some stale and slightly used air about now.

[Coyote Poetry]

A amazing poem and I saved the show. I listen to part of it. Good music need god words. Thank you for sharing your poetry. Silence had many meanings. Can be lonely, can be needed. Hard place to be and know. Thank you for sharing the excellent poetry. You made me create one now.
Coyote

[Chris]

the music is what they play as people call in to join the que for presentations. The actual show has two or more segments where those in the call que present a work. In this one I present in both segments - a different poem in each.

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good set-up. I like when poetry and music can find a similar place.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i tuned out everything else (silence)
and listened to the hushed beat of this poem---
that quiet place never really is all that quiet is it.
i seem to be better suited to concentrate when there is a steady noise in the background---
i block it out, like bad thoughts when i am trying to concentrate on good feelings---
we never can get to that silence really...and i like what you said about really hearing something...often we listen or pretend to...but we aren't really listening.

you make me think---challenge me when i read you...i like that.

[Matching Socks]

Chris, I enjoyed the poem very much, I think it's a feeling most of us can relate to and understand, hearing the reading was an incredible experience. I've never actually listened to the show before. Wow. :)

[Chris]

Some really good people call in... for that broadcast I managed a poem in the first and second segments. Totally different emotional footprint to each piece.

[Matching Socks]

I took a listen to a few of them, really great stuff to here the emotion in the poets voice.
I've not done readings. I might one day.