when did you last hear
plain unvarnished silence
not the silence of soft
music playing from hidden corners
or the silence of an office
where the machines work silently
i don't even mean the silence
of switched off televisions and phones
no, not the silence of a home
where everyone is tucked in
their beds, in deep sleep
I don't allude to the silence of
lofty mountain tops, nor to
the silence of still blue lakes
forests are silent at night but
that is not the silence I have in mind
sometimes the house is silent during
the day, the chores done, the children
boisterous in school
there are train journeys at night that
make you think, is this silence , as
the train passes so smoothly over the dark rails
that there is merely a whisper and a whoosh
sometimes, friends share a coffee in
a quiet barista at noon, sitting in silence
but that is not what I mean either
not even the silence of lovers who stroll
hand in hand down the beach
on a dark and balmy night
or the mother rocking her child gently to sleep
the silence of a poet hunched over his notebook
scribbling away ? no ! and No also to the sweep of the brushes
that fill a canvas with colour while the picture is still
only in the mind's eye
the curly haired child snuggled up with his dog ?
or the silent solitary walk of the grey haired
elder at dawn ?? No !
I refer to the silence of the uncluttered mind
the mind empty of all thoughts
all ambitions
all designs
all pain
all greed
all questions
all grief
the silence of the mind that knows, I am,
and that is enough
(priya)
