Silence Beyond Silence
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The quietness;
A chestnut leaf sinks
Through the still water.
~Shōhaku
When all the world is hushed, the quietest sounds
Become as silent in their reverence
As angels dead, and laid out, out of bounds.
All noise is met with silent severance.
An autumn leaf that falls upon a pond
Thereafter settles still beneath the still
Cool surface, clear in silence there beyond
The tiny sound tips made while landing. Chill
Transparency is what is left behind
And nothing more, not even quietude
For quietness is noisy for the mind
That ponders this, which only wants to brood.
The color of the leaf is far too loud.
The mind wills silence colored like a shroud.
~ Philllip Whidden