Nine kinds of silence

Finuala Dowling

I have mouthed the muting of acute physical pain.
I have committed the silence of obdurateness.
I have overcome the winded, wounded heart-stop of taken breath.
I have left my body behind in waiting-room stillness.
I am familiar with the can’t-get-a-word-in-edgewise pause.
I am a veteran of bored deadening.
I have relished the gull’s distant cry of a lull.


I have taken notes in quiet communion with myself.

         I am silent.

                         Except if specifically requested to speak,
               or if I have more than two glasses of wine at a party.
         Then I am quite hilarious and men fall in love with me
and women ask if we can meet for breakfast or tea.

Afterwards, stifling shame, I spin again my soft cocoon and sleep,
fleeced in the nine kinds of silence you know me by: Nu.

From I Flying. Carapace: 2002

LitNet: 31 January 2006

Did you enjoy this poem? Have your say! Send your comments to webvoet@litnet.co.za, and become a part of our interactive opinion page.

Click here to receive our newsletter - your weekly cultural fix! Check out what's sizzling on our newsletter this week

back    /     to the top

© Kopiereg in die ontwerp en inhoud van hierdie webruimte behoort aan LitNet, uitgesluit die kopiereg in bydraes wat berus by die outeurs wat sodanige bydraes verskaf. LitNet streef na die plasing van oorspronklike materiaal en na die oop en onbeperkte uitruil van idees en menings. Die menings van bydraers tot hierdie werftuiste is dus hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die redaksie en bestuur van LitNet nie. LitNet kan ongelukkig ook nie waarborg dat hierdie diens ononderbroke of foutloos sal wees nie en gebruikers wat steun op inligting wat hier verskaf word, doen dit op hul eie risiko. Media24, M-Web, Ligitprops 3042 BK en die bestuur en redaksie van LitNet aanvaar derhalwe geen aanspreeklikheid vir enige regstreekse of onregstreekse verlies of skade wat uit sodanige bydraes of die verskaffing van hierdie diens spruit nie. LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf.