I Am A Rock
A winters day
In a deep and dark December
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock.
I am an island.
I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock.
I am an island.
Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the word before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock.
I am an island.
I have my books
And my poetry to protect me.
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock.
I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain.
And an island never cries.
Sound Of Silence
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain,
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone.
Neath the halo of a streetlamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp,
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light,
Split the night,
And touched the sound of silence.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more,
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never shared,
And no one dared
To stir the sound of silence.
"Fool", said I, "you do not know,
Silence, like a cancer, grows.
Hear my words and I might teach you.
Take my arms then I might reach you."
But my words, like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed in the wells of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they'd made.
And the sign flashed its warning
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence.