SOUNDSCAPE
We live in a noisy world.
Audio ecologists tell us that
there are no quiet places left.
The din of humans and our machines
our constant audio backdrop.
Even away from cities we feel obliged
to fill our ears with noise
artificial sound.
Silence is not the absence of noise
Sensory deprivation,
soundlessness.
True silence requires removal of all
Audible mechanical vibrations,
Leaving natural sound, undisturbed.
Silence is the sound of dancing wind and trickling brook
and peeping bird, and beating heart,
often unheard sounds around.
Maybe we have reasons why we’d rather hide in our noise,
Not wishing to listen in silence.
Finding silence and keeping silence exposes us,
to our deepest thoughts and feelings,
our pretense and complacency,
True listening raises discernment and evaluation
providing opportunity for renewal,
rousing an inner desire for cultivating quiet.
© Ron Unruh, October 2019
Backstory: A compilation of ideas accruing from the writing of Margaret Manning Shull (Silent Places), Kathleen Dean Moore (In Search of Silence); Julia Baird (An Unquiet Nation); Alan Jones (Soul Making).
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