Hush your mouth

The Vocal challenge Moment of Silence was kinda fun wasn't it? Seems to me it also raised an important and problematic question about the nature of silence. What is silence? Think about it. We know what sound is, we know what speech is, we know what noise is. These things are all easy to understand. What about silence?

If a word be worth one shekel, silence is worth two

When I checked the online Oxford English Dictionary, I counted 12 distinct and very different definitions of the word "silence", all of which define the word in the context of some form of absence. Absence of speech, of noise, sound, a halting of speech, an order to stop talking or otherwise making noise or, in scientific terms and absence of something specific in a substance. These definitions tell us what silence is not, but not what silence is.

How, then, can we understand what silence really means and is it a condition we can ever experience?

Wait a minute! Am I not being a little pedantic here? Silence doesn't have to be taken literally, does it? Can we not simply take the word to mean very quiet? Like if you turn the TV and the radio off, put your phone on 'silent' (making it 13 definitions when the OED eventually catches up), close the double-glazed windows, stop talking, sit still... you would eventually reach a state of silence. But, of course, you wouldn't. You might not even come close.

I have tried to reflect this uncertainty of meaning, this grasp for understanding, in my entries to the challenge. What do you think?

Here, I have attempted to express, in verse, the problem of understanding of silence as being a subtraction of sound.

In the following acrostic, I have considered the nature of silence in the context of the quality of its existence or its beneficial value.

Enduring emptiness

These two poems, I hope, will demonstrate the transient nature of the concept of true silence, in the sense of a complete absence of any kind of sound. Perhaps such a thing is an unobtainable goal, a kind of Nirvana, a state of grace or enlightenment? Not sure any of my poems have captured this dimension. The following does, however, venture into the healing properties of silence

Subtle is the balsam

On the subject of healing, the following reflects on the value of quietness and being still for a moment, as opposed to complete silence which. as we have discussed, is difficult to find. This is perhaps approaching the meaning of the title of the challenge 'Moment of Silence.'

I thought the meditative illustration might also suggest this interpretation of the challenge.

My final featured poem takes a more proverbial approach, interpreting a past precept: speech is silver, silence is golden. Some know only the second part of this saying whose origins are hard to pin down. I find it ironic that the golden value of silence should be proclaimed in a pop song, which is an art form which, essentially, celebrates what is often loud and gaudy musical performance. Also interesting that an ancient proverb should ascribe a monetary value to silence (see the Talmudic interpretation at the beginning of this article above).

If you are wondering about the featured image from this article it is, as captioned, a photograph of a landscape at Dungeness in the South Eastern corner of England. Far from being silent, this place is full of the sound of strong winds over this very flat part of the Kent coastal countryside. You can also hear many birds, insects and other wildlife. You can still consider this a form of silence as you hear very little, if any, noise from traffic, phone chatter and music, and other noises of everyday life. You could say that this is a place of calm and quiet isolation. A form of silence, surely?

I hope you found something in my metaphysical musings.

If nothing else, this Vocal challenge has helped us to understand that sometimes poetry provides the most meaningful definition of something that is otherwise imprecise or hard to grasp. Poetry is not just there to provide a form of literary entertainment. It is there to aid understanding.

Thanks for reading.