>>> Item number 6745 from WRITERS LOG9212B --- (61 records) ------ <<< Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 10:22:11 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: submission: A Resonant Silence (YAP) [you're going to subject them to ANOTHER poem, loosely speaking? They didn't say anything about the last one. So? Since when did silence mean consent? Since the media gave us the silent majority. Now be quiet.] Don't quite know why that phrase someone tossed out a while ago was sitting somewhere in my head gathering its friends, but this came together, so mike A Resonant Silence m. barker 1992 152 words The great bell, cracked Its grand clapper unmoving. Still, the resonance of silence rings Unheard by hurrying throngs. Rings in noisy barrio streets, Rings in lurid stinking bars, Rings in quiet hospital rooms, Rings around the world, and rings again. Heard in hearts leaping defiant, Heard by tyrants falling bloody, Heard here and there, now and again, That resonance of silence unstilled by time, or distance, or failure. Quietly calls each to freedom, Softly rings each to stand, Silently sounds each to trial, it tolls, and rolls a peal unceasing while one stands free, or one lives in fear. that resonance will never stop. though silence be the only reward for those attuned to its quiet call. Still, we hear it toll, that resonant silence, resonant with hopes and fears, resonant with tears, resonant with life. a great cracked bell with its still clapper, rings our living, tolls our dying, sings our trying, in silence.