Notes on Silence

I

Silence is a lifetime;

made of waiting

of a dream desired that never arrives,

of love that will not accept caress,

of a heart that refuses to bleed,

or slams shut its door to the most innocent query.

II

Silence is a continent;

a barren landscape that I have walked

that I am walking,

where a multiplicity of mirages

tease the heart’s eye

in merciless bombardment.

III

Silence is made of rain

each drop an ancient ocean

upon whose shores I knelt and prayed

for your arrival.

IV

Silence is night time,

a full moon blighted by impediments

of cloud and trees,

blurring, shredding,

and moonlight falling like tears upon my heart.

V

Silence comes even with the smile of daybreak

that delicate heartbreaking rupture of night;

it turns back sunlight

and tells me softly,

“the long night has not ended,

and perhaps it never will”.

VI

Silence,

Is made of a beautiful heart,

marked by refusal.

yielding a harvest:

centuries of waiting

and tears that will not fall

for fear of disturbing the earth that is you. 

[the above is a SINGLE poem and was also shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2008]