Sound of Silence | Poetry Breakdown

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re enjoying this weird weather change because one day it’s snowing and the next day it’s spring.

Sound of Silence

Among the rushing cars and quick gossip conversations,
you don’t really notice the drippy faucet
or the chirping early-birds.
You won’t care if Katie is engaged
or this lady is pregnant
or why that man is wearing his hat like that
or why we’re required to pay for education
or if your worries are weighted to your own life.

Isn’t it terribly heavy? To be constantly wondering
if your hair looks like hers with “easy waves”
or if your nails are the right matte millennial pink
or if you’re supposed to graduate at 22 and get married at 26.
Doesn’t it get so noisy when all your thoughts dance around
finding the right shower jams
if the juice cleanse you’re doing is actually working
if your neighbors are jumping on the bed or if they’re having noisy sex
if they like you, like like you or think you’re a worthless human being
or if the sadness you’re feeling is depression and not because you’re having a bad day.

“Can’t you just…you know…shut up every once in a while?”
Those words sting, but they’re true.
Your nostrils flare up to rebuttal my poignantly blunt statement
but you would just prove the point.
But you can’t let me win.
So you wait 4 minutes before you start protesting again.

If you would just take a second and just be.
Allow the noise to drain away
and take off the weight,
you’ll realize how wonderful
silence sounds.

This poem was inspired by my constant need to fill the silence with the constant buzz of social media. I decided that I would just stop…with the help of an app that threatens to kill a little graphic tree if you use your phone. That threat was enough to keep me away from my phone. I noticed a lot of change since I noticed more sounds that I don’t really hear. I also didn’t feel that on edge, so I’m going to keep it up until I don’t feel attached to my phone anymore.

I really wanted this poem to give the feeling of a rushed and overwhelmed feeling. I piled on the storytelling instances and tried to relate it as much as possible to your life. I know in my life, a lot of my peers are getting engaged, Kylie Jenner was (or was not) pregnant and people were shocked out of their minds when she gave birth, students were getting exhausted over work and everything continued to pile on. It gets pretty noisy.

In the following stanza, I sympathized with you and asked, “Isn’t it terribly heavy?” and piled on more thoughts that could’ve been flowing in your mind. Those thoughts started with little mundane thoughts like “if your nails are the right millennial pink” all the way to trying to identify depression over a “bad day”. It’s like a domino effect, snowball effect – things just get out of control.

The third stanza transitioned to a one-on-one conversation between me and you. It’s like all your thoughts spilled out and I told you to shut up. And the blow was rough, but it was exactly what you needed, although you pretend that nothing happened and continue to create more noise. And the last stanza was supposed to imitate silence and calmness. How is silence supposed to sound? Isn’t that kind of a paradox? And I was hopefully able to grant that answer after this poem.

Thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed!

Alice