The Virtues of Silence | Teen Ink

The Virtues of Silence

December 21, 2023
By poctagon7 BRONZE, Bentonville, Arkansas
poctagon7 BRONZE, Bentonville, Arkansas
3 articles 0 photos 4 comments

When words just aren’t enough

And the trouble lies too deep

I am waiting here

For your soul to keep


When speech can’t break the wall

That separates our hearts

But silence crosses borders

Draws together our two parts


Sometimes I wonder

If I display my core

Or if like many others

I hide behind a door


Perhaps I’m not as honest

As I think myself to be

Or I wouldn’t yearn so

For people to know me


Am I really known

Or am I merely seen

Understood for imperfections

Or presumed to be clean


Don’t we all need desperately

To be truly understood

And yet we make more trouble

Than we thought we could


Intimacy comes

When you are truly yourself

Not when you draw from faces

Sitting on your shelf


The moments that you yearn for

Are moments all alone

When you still feel another presence

Other than your own


Not when you try too hard

Or when you talk too loud

But in quiet composure

When you can drop your shroud


There’s peace that comes with silence

You can rest easy and know

Without saying any words

You can’t be putting on a show


There is no deception in the night

When perceptions are all gone

And all you hear are whispers

Until the blazing light of dawn


Stillness tells no lies

Your soul is laid out bare

Only in the darkness

Can people see what’s hidden there


So I seek the darkened sky

In which you see naught but the stars

Because only in the blackest pitch

Can we see the light from ours



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