Silence by Edgar Lee Masters
I HAVE known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence for which music alone finds the word,
And the silence of the woods before the winds of spring begin,
And the silence of the sick
When their eyes roam about the room.
And I ask: For the depths
Of what use is language?
A beast of the field moans a few times
When death takes its young.
And we are voiceless in the presence of realities—
We cannot speak.
A curious boy asks an old soldier
Sitting in front of the grocery store,
"How did you lose your leg?"
And the old soldier is struck with silence,
Or his mind flies away
Because he cannot concentrate it on Gettysburg.
It comes back jocosely
And he says, "A bear bit it off."
And the boy wonders, while the old soldier
Dumbly, feebly lives over
The flashes of guns, the thunder of cannon,
The shrieks of the slain,
And himself lying on the ground,
And the hospital surgeons, the knives,
And the long days in bed.
But if he could describe it all
He would be an artist.
But if he were an artist there would he deeper wounds
Which he could not describe.
There is the silence of a great hatred,
And the silence of a great love,
And the silence of a deep peace of mind,
And the silence of an embittered friendship,
There is the silence of a spiritual crisis,
Through which your soul, exquisitely tortured,
Comes with visions not to be uttered
Into a realm of higher life.
And the silence of the gods who understand each other without speech,
There is the silence of defeat.
There is the silence of those unjustly punished;
And the silence of the dying whose hand
Suddenly grips yours.
There is the silence between father and son,
When the father cannot explain his life,
Even though he be misunderstood for it.
There is the silence that comes between husband and wife.
There is the silence of those who have failed;
And the vast silence that covers
Broken nations and vanquished leaders.
There is the silence of Lincoln,
Thinking of the poverty of his youth.
And the silence of Napoleon
After Waterloo.
And the silence of Jeanne d'Arc
Saying amid the flames, "Blesséd Jesus"—
Revealing in two words all sorrow, all hope.
And there is the silence of age,
Too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it
In words intelligible to those who have not lived
The great range of life.
And there is the silence of the dead.
If we who are in life cannot speak
Of profound experiences,
Why do you marvel that the dead
Do not tell you of death?
Their silence shall be interpreted
As we approach them.
On to the next gas station (really not the next one but a bit further up the road). There was a guy at the next pump who could not seem to restart his car. The starter seemed to be grinding. The woman at the pump behind him was finished pumping and waiting for him to pull out so she could leave. Seeing the man was having difficulty, she got out of her car and said, 'Sir are y'all having some trouble with your starter?" "Yes m'aam I am." "Well you need to try some of this starter spray." She goes up to the open hood of his car and sprays this 'starter spray'. His car instantly starts and he pulls out.
Funny Airplane Story
I was flying home to Charlotte this afternoon and was seated in front of a man who was a 'talker'. He talked practically every minute of the 90 minute flight to the 24-year old man seated next to him. Only pausing to occasionally 'talk' to his very young daughter who was seated across the aisle with mommy.The topics were many and varied. Talking about Charlotte (a place he'd visited once two decades ago - but apparently knew everything about), the housing market, the fine restaurants, etc., etc, etc. to an extensive and eclectic list of subjects:
(in no particular order)
1.Machu Picchu
2. Rosebud the sled (he couldn't recall the movie from the '40s that this was from - and I resisted the urge to jump into the conversation and tell him...)
3. The importance of staying physically fit
4. That life is not a dress rehearsal - so if you are somwhere and want to see something do it
5. Hitchhiking across Ireland
6. Strange boutique brokerage accounting
7. Changes in Westchester / Stamford areas over the last decade
8. Readiness to 'find the right woman'
9. Pessimism and the deep deep hole we are in right now (economics)
10. Car accidents and related injury (no need for the details here)
11. Others I'm sure however I just can't remember now...
On the approach for landing the man seated next to me says, 'so where are you going?' I reply, 'Charlotte', he asks 'Is that home for you?' I say 'Yes it is.' he pauses then says, 'so did you learn anything on this flight?' ROFL
18 August 2011