On being silent

On being silent

 

I read to people in large rooms

but I can’t hear myself

I feel constrained

my words seem distant

somehow empty

echoing in an empty room

I feel I’m of another time

a sense of regret

I accepted silence for too long

and now feel that I should return

to a world of silence again.

A shepherd has read

a poem I wrote about him

and now looks at me with a new eye

there is a warmth

that I have honoured him

I am someone who has troubled

to write about him

and given importance to his life.

He said quietly that he took time

to read my words

and smiled.

 

For William.