Brendan Kennelly: May the Silence Break

May the Silence Break

Because you do not speak
I know the shock
of water encountering a rock.

Supremacy of silence is what I hate.
Only gods and graves have a right to that
or one who knows what this is all about.

Perhaps you do.
If so, let something break through
the walls of silence surrounding you.

Out here among words
your silence is the magnet I am drawn towards.
Men’s mouths, animals’ eyes and the throats of birds

fear this impenetrable thing.
So do I, all day long
and when the night drops like a confirmation

of what you are,
controller of every star,
possessor

of what the daylight struggled to reveal.
This possession kills
whatever it wills.

Nothing I say matters tonight.
Nor should it.
This silence is right

because it knows it is.
I shiver in the cocksure ice
and long for the warmth of bewildered eyes.

May the silence break
and melt into words that speak
of pain and heartache

and the hurt that is hard to bear
in the world out here
where love continues to fight with fear

and the war on silence will end in defeat
for every heart permitted to beat
in the air that hearts make sweet.

Brendan Kennelly, from A time for Voices

Lots of other good poems on this site too (and we like the idea of life-saving poems): http://anthonywilsonpoetry.com/2012/05/19/lifesaving-poems-brendan-kennellys-may-the-silence-break/

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