Two Poems -- Silence and Quiet

Silence

The articulated

Rustling of leaves,

With edges gently gnarled,

Through a ravine

Beneath a sky cast in sorrowed grey.

The swelling hum of insects in their rising

From the loose and textured grasses in their rolling

Where there flap a flight of bats who chirp for seeing

In the not yet frosted night in shadowed falling.

The rumors babbled in a creek

Where flash a trout, or two

Or three.

The hoofsteps of the deer who seek

A mate to meet, or two

Or three.

The warm cackling of a fire

At night,

Staving off the dark, the cold

The snow

Like slow rain,

Falling

With the rhythm of an owl’s

Unfettered song.

Quiet

The unquieting

Absence of sound

Where thoughts turn into

Phantoms shrieking,

Doorless doorways creaking,

Toothless lepers reeking,

Wounds infected leaking,

Eyeless beggars seeking.

The ringing in your ears

Like a hot wire plucked

By a minstrel

Hired by Death

To haunt your sleepless hours.

The rattle of a dying dream.

The fall of some ideal.

The crying of youth.

The crying.

The beating heart inside your ears.

Will someday cease. Will someday cease.

The grinding teeth, the flying years.

Will never cease. Will never cease.

Reviews

[Guilt]

A breath of silence in itself! Uncontaminated. Transparent.

And a penumbraic apparition of Poe himself. Now a rapping at my door?

I love your swordsmanship/penship. Your skill is obvious and evident. Looking forward to your next duel with the written word.

- Guilt