before the silence

Here's a Nicholas Barnham picture, which hangs in our living-room ...

... it's a watercolour of Uyeasound, on Unst in Shetland; with which Barnham had a long assocation.


Remember

Still
today I remember
in the quiet
but amidst the noise
too, nothing drowns
out the silence
of emotion.

Calm
now, as the day
begins anew
each moment special
every breath cherished
and yet
the silence.

On days
it can deafen
all else swept
aside, as memory
seeps through every
pore, each detail
clear, warm.

Not
for me the choice
to forget, but to
remember
for what else
can one do, before
the silence.

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