on silence
how do we lean into silence in a world that rewards chatter? a reflection on silence with poems by Anna Swir and Billy Collins
Amid the clamour of the world, the desire to gather the serenity of silence has intensified within me. The milieux filled with incessant chatter all the time feels like there isn’t any time to be quiet. A world constantly deluged with the sights and sounds of news, trends, views, and notions. Guilty as charged, I also end up contributing to this infinite cacophony.
These days, I’ve been thinking of regenerating the blooms of silence in my life. The peace of quietude has soothed me for decades. When I was younger, I was uncomfortable with silence, but these days I seek it out.
Like the seasonal blooms, I feel that the modern soul needs to harvest periods of silence with each passing season. Silence is a force of resistance, a way of asserting our own values and priorities in a world that often seeks to drown them out.
It’s interesting to observe how silence doesn’t fit into modern ways of being. The one who dares to be silent loses out on the brownies of modern society. In the online world driven by the algorithmic engine, periods of inactivity, which can be a form of virtual silence, can thwart the ability to be seen by your little online zoösphere inhabitants. The virtual silence endeavours become tricky with such constraints. Even in workplaces, silence during meetings or calls doesn’t have an excellent reputation. As E.E. Cummings wrote,
most people are perfectly afraid of silence.
Different cultures deal with silence in interesting ways. If one reflects, there is a visible chasm on this topic around the world. The cultures around listening vs. speaking. In the Eastern world, they reflect a reverence for silence in the hush that pervades the air.
Silence has many shapes and forms. Silence isn’t void of emotion. It is rich with feelings that can spring alive with attention and presence.
The tranquil silence with a mug of coffee before dawn breaks out, the anticipatory silence in the corridors of school during mid-day, the mourning silence while paying respects to the bereaved, the blank silence of the mind as the inner chatter dissolves during meditation, the meditative quiet corners of an empty church. The emotion-filled silence, as the audience, watches a scene play out on the stage. I can only imagine the beauty and depth of cosmic silence. Silence seems to be everywhere — from the tranquil pre-dawn to the mourning of the bereaved — each with a different hue.
What if silences aren’t uncomfortable? What if silences have a tune of their own? How do we lean into silence? How does one make silence a sacred ritual?
The role of silence in a performative world feels ambiguous. How does one learn to embrace silence when the world wants you to be loud? In the personal sphere, I’ve struggled to be silent when the need to help my loved ones with their problems overtakes my sensibilities. Listening to the unsaid is something that I’ve nurtured over the years. I'm learning to use silence in relationships as a bridge. Silence — as an invitation towards vulnerability. I am working to cultivate pauses of quietness in the virtual space. When I am creating, I find solace in the generative silence. I want to cultivate a garden of silence, a place where I can go to escape the noise of the world in any season. Perhaps writing about itself is a paradox :)
I love this framing by Pico Iyer in his essay on silence,
“We have to earn silence,then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands.”
Many authors and poets have delved into the theme of silence. I found this radio clip that features different representations of silence that you might enjoy. Paul Goodman in this clip speaks of the different kinds of silence. Pico Iyer weighs in with his views. In the end, we all have our own interpretations and relationships that we form with silence.
I hope you like the poems that I chose in line with today’s theme.
Silence by Billy Collins There is the sudden silence of the crowd above a player not moving on the field, and the silence of the orchid. The silence of the falling vase before it strikes the floor, the silence of the belt when it is not striking the child. The stillness of the cup and the water in it, the silence of the moon and the quiet of the day far from the roar of the sun. The silence when I hold you to my chest, the silence of the window above us, and the silence when you rise and turn away. And there is the silence of this morning which I have broken with my pen, a silence that had piled up all night like snow falling in the darkness of the house— the silence before I wrote a word and the poorer silence now. Our Two Silences by Anna Swir Silence flows into me and out of me washing my past away. I am pure already, waiting for you. Bring me your silence They will doze off nestled in each other's arms, our two silences.
I leave you with these questions of reflection that might be of help to you with your practice of silence.
- What silences do you enjoy?
- Do you have generative and purposeful silence built into your everyday life?
- What silences trouble you? How can you better cope with it?
Until next time, take care and enjoy your brushes with silence :). I am cohosting a poetry salon on Change, do join in if it is something of interest to you.