Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The silent thief

(to one of the victims of our silence, l.b.)

i'm not sure who
insisted silence was gold
but i'm pretty sure
he was wrong.
there's too much to
SAY
and stories to live
and so silence has
been a thief for
US
took those words
"i love you"
and contorted them
into fear
and nothing
and looked a lot
more black than sheen
but we are finding
-she and i-
that listening is
silver
and worth its weight
in gold


visit emily, my favorite thursday haunt, for her imperfect prose and join the rest of us as we write grace, imperfectly perfect.

20 comments:

Brian Miller said...

nice. like the play on words in the close....there is much to say but i imagine we would be a whole lot wiser to listen twice as much as we open our mouths...

Nancy said...

Reminded me of Ecclesiastes--a time to be silent and a time to speak.

Kim Hyland said...

"silence has been a thief for US took those words "i love you" and contorted them into fear" This part gets me. How fear keeps us from expressing our hearts. Thoughtful. Thanks, Misty.

suzannah | the smitten word said...

mmm, this is so good. thankful you both are finding your voices, silver in the story-sharing.

rebecca said...

i love that you are challenging an old idea on the worth of silence..
i am right beside you
elevating the act of
listening.
the transformation that is born in willingness...
the way love
becomes a perfect verb.

Leslie said...

"silence has been a thief for us"

This poem is beautifully wrought. Yes. There are times when silence is evil. I'm glad that more healing is coming, through listening, and love.

Kath said...

i love that listening is silver.
Kath

alexis nicole said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alexis nicole said...

This is absolutly beautiful. I love it!
"Listening is silver and worth it's weight in gold"
This is truth, sister!

keLi said...

thought-provoking stuff ... so hard sometimes to let Silence have its place; so hard sometimes to speak up, speak out.

Michelle DeRusha said...

I like this very much, especially those last lines about silver and gold. Nicely done, Misty.

Bethany Ann said...

it's all pride, isn't it? what makes us speak when we shouldn't and not listen when we should. this is great... let's redeem what we thought was lost!

Carrie Van Horn said...

Misty this is beautiful...listening is silver and silence is not golden...it is a theif...thank you for sharing these truthful and lovely words.
:-)

Jodi said...

I get it.

Anonymous said...

I like this a lot - for sure, silence is not always golden... loved the ending

Mommy Emily said...

gorgeous. we listen in order to speak, and it's a conundrum, and we're learning this together. as usual, you silence my soul with your poetry, friend, but you also make me yearn to write... thank you. xo

Amanda MacB said...

I keep coming back and reading this - thinking of times people needed to speak up and didn't and times when people needed to listen so they would know how to speak (myself included). Thanks for stirring my heart.

Anonymous said...

Simon & Garfunkel made a poignant song about the sounds of silence. SILENCE LIKE A CANCER GROWS. Another song, "i am a rock," IF I NEVER LOVED, I NEVER WOULD HAVE CRIED.". Oh, let my tears of joy pour forth and never let the walls -the prison - of silence be raised again.

Rachel said...

This is really good! One of my favorite verses in Proverbs 31 is that she has the law of kindness on her tongue. :-) We are not to be silent but to speak and listen with love. :-)

Unknown said...

there is a lot here I think.

there is a beauty here... but there is also a haunting.