Inspired by Eugenia’s Weekly Prompt – Guiding Light & Reena’s Exploration Challenge #230
in today’s world of text messages and emails
confusion over interpretation mounts
face time, video chats, and zoom meetings
brings us together live
to determine intent and desired goals
our guiding light is honesty, openness, and cooperation
to achieve desired outcomes
well, mostly…
their words formed soundless
couples’ silences deafen
watch wounded hearts break
thoughts left aside
words deliverable
yet unspoken
become
all that
which is unknowable
connection remaining unattainable
when understanding remains hazy
in my purview
Inspired by Reena’s Exploration Challenge #215 – Unknowable & Unexplainable &
Eugenia’s Weekly Prompt – Hazy
So often we neglect to share our feelings or open our hearts to opportunities the truth can be spoken. Fear, perhaps? The insecurities or thoughts of rejection we may experience seem to guide us. But as Sarah Bareilles’s song Brave spells out quite nicely – “Let the words fall out.” May they not only remain bound in a journal. Do open up, do share your thoughts, and be amazed at what you can learn, experience, and feel!
Footprints & Silhouettes by Laura Denise
So many silent, untold stories
in yesterday’s leftover footprints,
in this morning’s sunrise-silhouetted
figures in the distance.
I am a people watcher,
always curious about
human nature,
collectively and within each
individual character.
When the stage lights are unlit
and the microphone off,
I wonder about each’s
private feelings and thoughts.
We are not actors
on life’s stage;
we are each keepers
of our own private plays,
longing to be brave enough
to raise the curtain, so you
may get but a glimpse
of a scene of what we’ve
been going through.
So many footprints and silhouettes
crossing paths,
so little we know of the bodies’ souls
leaving the tracks.
What lies inside the impression,
what lies within the shadow,
those are the mysteries
I continuously wonder about.
Which footprint seeped love,
which footprint seeped grief,
which figure is weeping,
which figure rekindling dreams?
Hearts upon sleeves
are taken up by the wind,
feelings in chests
locked and buried again.
So many untold stories,
so many opportunities passed,
to initiate conversation with another
and simply ask.
[Thought] You Were Gone by Timo Schmitz
Today when I saw you leaving,
I knew, I will never see you again.
It’s too late, I never dared to talk to you,
We will remain strangers. Forever.
No path crossing, you will never know me.
And I know nothing about you,
But I will never forget you.
Never.
Life is hard, relationships too. The reality is both take work, determination, and effort. And boy, is it exhausting.
whole of a part by mbrazfieldm
the rain has stopped and the sidewalks smell like dog piss and dying roses but i like the fragrance of my clove cigarette the stop lights change every two minutes nothing strange i can’t place my emotions today i feel pressured to rub elbows with the crowd across the street but i can’t i don’t feel well my body pains me and i want to cry taking a few steps away from the Tropical i breath in deep a few yards away is a pile of rubbish the bright colors make it look magical and comforting looking at the clock across the street it’s time for group and terror grips me around my ankles and chest again again again my head fills up inside with doubt and shame like a sinking vessel i try to be brave my hands shake and i grind my teeth nostrils flare and i anger myself enough to rip my feet out of their coma and move walking up the stairs i want to vomit but i trudge on through asphyxiating terror and tears welling up in my eyes i give up and i walk back down i run for a while and stop under the bridge and the rain begins and the sidewalks smell like earth and the stray dogs smell my fear and alert their masters they look on and drink from a bottle i plop on the curb and cry again confused and in pain
you can keep me
forever
in your imagination
but reality
requires a tad more
moderation
Redux
My service, companionship, and support – you get all you need.
My rewards are few and far between.
Me, I’m just waiting here for the next command.
Why am I here?
Silence in relationships, like anything else, can have positive or negative effects. May those moments you experience be more uplifting than detrimental.
How do I put behind
bleakness
that darkens the way forward?
How do I forget
the cross
I’m condemned to bear?
How do I get you
out of my system
venom that flows in my blood?
How do I speak
words of forgiveness
In the graveyard silence of life?
Today’s Shot 273 by Beth Haley
Step away with me
Quiet souls probe the silence
Emptiness, refilled
Redux
I’m reaching out, engaging and scrutinizing;
skimming through to see you.
Holding you intently, purposefully and committed.
You seemed an open book.
The audio version of your story mesmerizing, your truth so bold.
Then I went beyond your notes and found blank pages.
They told a different story.
You ring hollow.
There’s nothing there.
I have to put this book down.
The efforts made to unravel the mystery, and
the chances taken diving right in brought me no pleasure.
I learned nothing.
Maybe another blank page can read you properly.
I won’t waste my time on an empty binding.
Not again.
When I’m ready to read again, I’m sure
I’ll find a better book to discover.
Every pass I make with this piece, I seem to come away with even more questions but also recognize there are more answers Rahul gives us about this dynamic. I imagine I will enjoy the next read-thru too.
I operate in unwritten words
The silences the glitter and the bursts
The moment before the click
The dawn before it tricks night
into losing the battle of sight
I operate in the ashes of the cigarette
that hurt the knuckle of her hands
The gentle desperation of solitude
that a thud of the door leaves behind
The tip of her tongue holds
the makings of a regret
I catch it in her hesitation
The downside of baring our souls
was the ability to read each others minds
You look at the door I look at you
I click one last picture
to leave you in your desperate solitude
The piece below by Walt Page prompted this comment from me –
We should empathize with our eyes, our bodies giving full attention, letting the sounds
of sincere words resonate in our ears.
– as well as embroiling me in more thoughts about listening. Thank you for the inspiration, Walt!
He is so right that it’s time, beyond time. I wonder why it’s always been such a difficult thing for us humans. Communication is such an important aspect of relationships. Yet, we shy away from it initially, fail miserably when the thresholds of civility are pushed, and feel hampered when trust is thin. I’m generous; probably more than a small minority is afflicted.
After letting my mind wander through possible reasons for this, I go back to being a small child, when I was chastised or told to be quiet way too often. My opinions were shot down often, me frequently having to defend them in heated arguments, taken seriously rarely or worse criticized for having them. I honestly think it hampered my ability to listen and limited my desire to communicate sincerely. There was no genuine intention for all parties to be heard. My upbringing and my incessant need to prove myself was far more important. I was, more often than not, considered a hothead at the very least, argumentative. Thanks, Mom and Dad.
As I grew older, living on my own, raising children after two marriages, I feel like I softened. Not right away, more like when I reached middle-age. First, I had to admit to myself that it’s not always fun to embroil myself in heated arguments. Secondly, I finally got to the point where I felt the need to be heard wasn’t just the communicator’s responsibility. My ears had to be in the conversation too.
My parents may have screwed up in their parenting, but being an adult, I realized how important it was to engage and to do it sincerely. Most people are horrible communicators, but maybe I need to remember that maybe they had terrible parents too.
It’s Time
It’s time to listen
to really hear
to pay attention
to what’s being said
too often we pretend to listen
while our minds are wandering
worrying about money
the corona virus, our children
even when we are alone we don’t really listen
we don’t hear the sounds of silence
the songs of the birds or the power of the wind
what our animals are saying with their eyes
so listen… really listen
hear the sounds around you
the music of the night
the time has come
it’s time to listen
~The Tennessee Poet~
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