The Echo of Silence

The Mag #258

Also linking with Poetry Jam for the prompt "Silence".



Silence is a text easy to misread.  ~A.A. Attanasio

Ignorance is a dark hall that seems to have no doors.
Where wisdom has no voice that fools can soon ignore.
And truth can be a luxury when it is nowhere to be found
as secrets can deceive like lies when they do abound.
For the truth holds a certain power like a shelter in the rain
and when it is abandoned it leaves one vulnerable to more pain.




When I was around 4 years old we had a gold fish that lived in a bowl on top of our console television.  One day I was left in the house alone while the family was doing some yard work.  I got the wonderful idea to feed the fish.  Everyone else was doing something productive and I wanted to do something to.  So I decided to get the little shaker bottle of fish food and make myself useful.  Once I started pouring it seemed that more would be better than less, after all, it was probably very hungry.  The rest of the story speaks for itself.  You know the outcome.  Too much dinner for fish is a certain death indeed.  A few hours later I heard the sad gasp of my mother as she discovered the fish floating on the top of the water.  At the time I did not realize what I had actually done.  It was not until I was older that I put two and two together.  You see, ignorance is not always kind.  At least not for the poor gold fish in a fish bowl.  Not knowing what I had done, was less painful for me at 4 years old, but if someone had shown me how to feed them and why, maybe little Goldie would have lived a longer life.  The echo of silence tends to be a sad sound indeed.

The Brilliant Teacher

Starry Night by Alex Ruiz

 

 

The Mag #234

 

 

 

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

 

Every soul is a brilliant student and teacher

 like the stars in the midnight sky.

Each endeavor we undertake

 is a shimmering example

be it wrong or be it right.

 

All the decisions one man can manufacture
are a beacon for those willing to truly view
and they become a bright lesson of guidance
of what another man should never do.


For our lives are a monument on display
 like a planetarium or chalk board at school,
and our actions profess the truths
that speaks for both scholars and for fools.








One thing I have learned over the years watching people and taking a closer look into my own mirror is this:


We all are teachers in this life.  We advise others not just in our triumphs but also in our mistakes.   Like stars in the midnight sky we shine bright when it is dark.  Adversity and how we handle it can be the most brilliant teacher of all.  It enlightens understanding much faster than the way of complacency for both the individual and the onlookers.   The clergy teach us, but so does the criminal.  They each have a message to share.   For this world is one big classroom, and we are not just the students we are the teachers as well. 






What is the brightest lesson your life has taught to someone else in your sphere of influence?
Has someone in your life taught you a valuable lesson you would like to share?






Broken Records

Charlotte Gainsbourg, AnOther

The Mag #153

"Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened"

~T.S. Eliot

The song of old regrets plays like nostalgic records inside my broken heart and weary mind.

I carefully place each one on the player and replay each song until I have memorized every line.
Then I dance with each lament like lovers close enough to keep whispering in my ear.
So the breath of one hundred aches and grievances sing softly yet they sing clear,
with the cadence of a blues song it is an elegy and never rings with glory like a hymn.
All the records play only sad songs that speak to my heart a penance for my lost sins,
and I keep them deep in a forlorn place where my heart slips down into sorrows like too much wine,
for the dance of life has awkward steps that fall short of perfection each and every time.




I am generally a positive person and do not dwell on my mistakes and regrets as much as I probably could, but when I finally do it is always a dance of grief inside of my mind....ruminating the undone and should nots like old broken records stuck on a certain line.  Somehow, this photo just pulled that out of the heart of me and, place it upon the page. 

Cement of My Soul

There are times my feet are eager like a river
clumsily following the path easy to flow.
And my eyes are caged like two birds
never reaching the place they were meant to go.
There are times my heart is wavering like a tall oak
that in the storm is so easily swayed.
And my tongue is flickering like a fire
unable to stop the smoke from it's flame.
There are times my hands are reckless like the ocean
never knowing when to hold to the shore or just let go.
Yet, the tears that fall again and again
become the cement of my soul.