Silence Poems
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them suddenly
pressed me against his heart, I would perish
in the embrace of his stronger existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure and are awed
because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Each single angel is terrifying.
And so I force myself, swallow and hold back
the surging call of my dark sobbing.
......
Questions Of Travel
by Elizabeth Bishop
There are too many waterfalls here; the crowded streams
hurry too rapidly down to the sea,
and the pressure of so many clouds on the mountaintops
makes them spill over the sides in soft slow-motion,
turning to waterfalls under our very eyes.
- For if those streaks, those mile-long, shiny, tearstains,
aren't waterfalls yet,
in a quick age or so, as ages go here,
they probably will be.
But if the streams and clouds keep travelling, travelling,
......
The Country Of Marriage
by Wendell Berry
I.
I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.
II.
This comes after silence. Was it something I said
......
Palme
by Paul Valéry
Veiling, barely, his dread
Beauty and its blaze,
An angel sets warm bread
and cool milk at my place.
His eyelids make the sign
Of prayer; I lower mine,
Words interleaving vision:
--Calm, calm, be ever calm!
Feel the whole weight a palm
Bears upright in profusion.
......
The Forsaken
by Duncan Campbell Scott
I
Once in the winter
Out on a lake
In the heart of the north-land,
Far from the Fort
And far from the hunters,
A Chippewa woman
With her sick baby,
Crouched in the last hours
Of a great storm.
......
A Sonnet of 35: When Silence Spoke of You
by Ayatullah Nurjati
When silence spoke, it called thy tender name,
And in that hush, my heart began to bloom;
Thy shadow danced upon the candle’s flame,
And turned the lonesome night to sweet perfume.
The moon grew pale beneath thy subtle gaze,
As though it feared thy beauty’s quiet might;
I lost my self within that mystic maze,
Where soul meets soul beyond both dark and light.
......
Nusantara Silence
by Ayatullah Nurjati
We were born from the land of Nusantara, a womb of time that contains seas and mountains, where waves learn to prostrate themselves and rocks memorize the wind's prayers.
Our language grows from the roots of rain, from the rustling of rice and the history of boats; words are not shouts, but silent traces that lead home.
Silence is not mere silence; it is a clear spring in the chest, where the mind abandons noise and the soul learns to listen to the universe.
In that silence, we know ourselves without the mirror of arrogance, calling out the name of life with a voice that does not hurt.
The mountains teach us to stand tall without arrogance, the sea teaches us to be vast without swallowing; the two meet in the awareness that life is care.
......
A Sonnet 14: Unwritten Flame
by Ayatullah Nurjati
I walk the edge where silence meets the word,
A blade of dusk between the now and then—
Each breath a question, each footfall unheard,
Yet echoing through minds of sleeping men.
The jasmine wilts beneath the neon sky,
Batiks unravel in the market’s blaze,
While puppets dance and prophets pass us by,
Their shadows stitched in time’s dissolving haze.
......
Remembrance
by Ghairo Daniels
watching passivity in activity
sad, sombrely sad
memories from womb rise and fall
little miracles of remembrance
holding the hands of Fate we wait
Wheels of Fortune revolves, race stagnates
we do not cry, hankerchiefs dry
timeless we watch, clock ticking
clock glancing, mindful of time
......
Die Sprache der Stille
by Mario Odekerken
Stille sprecht
ohne Worte,
sie webt Fäden
zwischen Atem und Gedanke.
In der Stille hörst du
das Ungesagte,
das Zittern der Erinnerungen,
das Schlagen eines Herzens,
das nichts verbirgt.
......
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Henry Wadswor Longfellow (36 poems about Silence)
27 February 1807 – 24 March 1882 / Portland, Maine -
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Christopher John Brennan (5 poems about Silence)
1 November 1870 – 5 October 1932 / Sydney / Australia -
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