The Loud Silence

Silence speaks loudly when you watch it quietly.

Silence, I realised, is terribly loud
When  I tried for a while to be silent
Inside I see that roaring lousy cloud
A cloud  my yelling wounds strongly vent


Running after an illusion of inner peace
I encountered a stock of vicious grudges
Vile intentions and curses spark mad menace
Mute volcanoes they create give aching hedges


In the darkness behind closed eyes
Dark and colourful scenes ceaselessly flow
Countless images keep turning like dice
Their magnitude giving me a mortal blow


A self expedition of the unknown
My odyssey looking for equanimity
Showed dirty shades the mind has deep down
Making this helpless soul shaken to insanity.


The little encounter with my noisy self
The silly sad grumbling revengeful mate
Secretly storing hurts of hell in a hidden shelf
All heaping sorely behind that closed gate


I now know what to do to reach the shore
Erasing the malice and trash causing ill fate
Learning not to store anything like before
For, now I know how to reach a peaceful state

I am glad I realised this before it is too late.

Author's Note

My own reflections and observations...

Reviews

[.]

Very personal and carthartic writing.....

Many a person has tried to calm the inner demons with silence and meditation, hoping with a sense of calmness all their troubles would disappear. If only it was that simple! What it does do however, is allow us the opportunity to really delve deep into our core and forces us to tackle our demons head on. Solutions always appear in these moments of solitude.

I enjoyed the poem. Well written as always with a thoughtful theme. Perhaps place that final line on its own beneath the last stanza. Just to maintain a sense of structural uniformity for the piece, with the final line standing alone as the moral conclusion to the whole poem. Just a thought.

Very nice work, Bala. Deep and meaningful.

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you Doodley, for your visit and kind words and as always very valuable inputs. they always help. Your contribution in shaping out and inspiring other writers here is immense.Please keep visiting always guiding me. I know there is not writing from these days.
Your suggestion is taken and implemented...

[.]

Always welcome. And a hearty hello to Manasvani.

[SZHZIA]

I love silence and the observations you have shared with us in this lovely poem. Thanks for sharing.

Best
Szhzia

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you for visiting and appreciating. Keep visiting..:-)

[pragya gaur]

Nicely written... Touched my heart

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you for visiting and appreciating...

[Norman 223]

I really liked your introduction, Bala, that " Silence speaks loudly........." We are so often lost in a cacophony of political, advertising and religious dissent, that our own thoughts are immersed in self doubt. Quiet contemplation in isolation allows us to "hear" our own inner voice.

[Bala Gorthi]

I started thinking it would be an odyssey of silence which actually turned out a journey of inner noise.
Thank you for visiting and appreciating..

[Coyote Poetry]

Hard and deep journey in your words. I liked the honest tone and thoughts. You made the reader think and ponder. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you for visiting and appreciation.

[Coyote Poetry]

Was my pleasure and you are welcome.

[Great Aunt Astri]

That chattering inner mind can be a real nuisance, sometimes getting very critical and aggressive. "The silly sad grumbling revengeful mate." says it well. You are quite right, "Learning not to store...", but sometimes it is very hard to let it go. Different people have different strategies to do this. I am glad that the poet now knows " how to reach a peaceful state." I hope he enjoys the rest of his days on earth. Thank you for writing this poem.

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you very much for your kind visit and precious words, my friend Astri. The realisation is there but the application of it I.e. maintaining detachment with awareness is something very difficult to practise in real life situations especially where the self and close ones are involved. But it is not impossible..
Thank you for your time.. Keep visiting

[Great Aunt Astri]

Yes, it must be difficult to always be detached, with awareness. But another, perhaps less spiritual, strategy is just not to let anything that will cause inner disruption, affect you. I went for a bit of therapy once. The most useful thing she said to me was , "Be a duck, just let the waters roll off your back.", and do you know, that helped so much. I do still have inner turmoil from time to time, but that seems to roll away when recognised, and most of the time I do feel pretty peaceful. Which is nice, when you are getting old, like me.

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you for sharing the strategy of letting things off the back. I shall try to keep it in mind.read moreThank you for sharing the strategy of letting things off the back. I shall try to keep it in mind.
I am also not young any more. A mother of two adults and fully possessed by my family. My poem "the poet's biopsy" tells what it means to me. Thankfully I have no material attractions but the emotional aspect shakes the balance a little bit once in a while. But any kind of holding affects our health and peace.
Good to be sharing thoughts with you..

[Fahmida Mehreen]

Silence is the loudest of all noise.

Good write!

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you for your visit and words...

[barleygirl]

There's a common experience many have when trying to meditate for the first few times, not being able to quiet their minds, & you've shown this with an abundance of clarity & even drama. Your words seemingly describe a battle to quiet the raging mind which can sometimes take years to win. I'm not a big fan of using a repeating line over & over as in this poem. I think it would be good to try using this line less often or maybe altering it so we see what it means more clearly with each varying statement. It isn't until the final stanza that it becomes clear what this repeating line really means, anyhow, so it's kinda hanging out there, over & over, but not clear until the end. This is my only dislike, but it's just a personal preference of mine. Otherwise, your poem is very spot-on with the experience.

[Bala Gorthi]

Thank you Margie, for visiting and sharing your view. I agree with you. I am glad you have said it.
In fact, originally the refrain was written only as the last verse. And later I decided to add it as the last verse in every stanza because this realisation strikes at phenomenon of mind as we introspect. Day after day you encounter different shades and every time the lesson is same, how our past or sometimes thoughts about future hang around every corner and our present is conditioned by it. So later I decided to use the verse as refrain in this write.
I now understand that for readers it does not show the real connection with particular section when you read each section.
Thank you for honest remarks and valuable inputs.
I have removed the refrain from the first five sections and presented it as it was originally written..
Keep visiting and sharing..

[barleygirl]

I've tried to go thru all your postings to make sure I didn't miss any. If you ever find one I haven't reviewed, feel free to read-request me (((HUGS)))