Silent

 

Silent

~

do you hear the autumn wind
stirring in the branches

do you hear the leaves rustle

do you hear my breath
whispering your name

do you hear my heart beat

do you hear my tears fall

or is it silent

silent as the light-less realm
that hauntingly engulfs my soul

silent as that night
when apples spilled
on the broken stair
where rail eluded
your grasping hand

silent as your futile cry
when no voice came
to grace your lips

tender lips
that parted gently
to hold my kiss

lips

that will not know again
sweet fruit

nor love

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2011

 

poem & image above inspired by visual prompt below

* linked 2011 at Magpie Tales

* linked 2020 at Poets & Storytellers

40 thoughts on “Silent”

  1. Those initial 7 lines, because they are questions, seem insistent, and then “or is it silent” stops the movement, before picking up again with a shift in the cadence that carries us more slowly to the image of the rail eluded and the final silence. Lovely!

  2. Hi Rob,

    lovely work. Happy to have found you through dverse. I love autumn and this piece brings her into my room. It is November and 72 degrees here in Tennessee. Thanks for letting in some cool fall weather.

    Line 6 I think you may have meant “heart” instead of heat?

  3. ps… would you be interested in doing a guest post for me? i would love you to do a reading of one of my pieces and in return I would share one of yours with my readers as well.

    email if interested. 🙂

    thanks,
    Kellie

  4. the love, the longing, the sadness can be felt….my fav lines…
    silent as that night
    when apples spilled
    on the broken stair
    where rail eluded
    your grasping hand

  5. I really enjoyed the piece. For me it is really two poems in one. A beautiful ode followed up by a beautifully sad lament. Each their own prominence and the transition from the first to the last was done so well. Thanks for composing this.

  6. Must say I concur with Claudia, that stanza is fabulous; actually, I loved the whole flow of this, it sings what the photo could not ~

  7. I am drawn to this section:

    “silent as that night
    when apples spilled
    on the broken stair
    where rail eluded
    your grasping hand”

    And the way you close the poem with the fruit reference. Nice framing.

  8. Sometimes life gives us applesauce, I guess!

    I liked the “do you hear” refrains at the start, especially.

    Forgive me, please, if I would tinker with the ending this way:

    lips

    that will not know again
    love

    nor sweet fruit

    Enjoyed the read, either way!

    1. Thank you Charles for your kind words regarding this piece…

      This poem evolved and been pared down over a period of 2 years, and multiple edits, to be where it is today. I considered the ending in-depth, going through a multitude of iterations, I chose to end with love because I wanted the end to be a knock out punch. I do not believe in any form of afterlife — so death denying one the taste of sweet fruit is a terrible thing. But that death denies forever, the taste of love on one’s lips, is, for me, considerably more devastating — so I built the ending to “Silent” to be first a jab, then a KO uppercut…

    1. I am in a blue rainy day autumn mood. I came across this in my archives searching autumn related pieces I’ve written over the years. It fit my mood so I shared it. Misery loves company you know Rosemary.

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