The House of Silence

“In every word we breathe we bring the Void- the utter zero of its depths unseen, the sum of worlds it swallowed and destroyed: dead myths and fables, fallen gods and dreams.”

Photo by Aman Pal.

The Ars Poetica of the Beyond

 This poem, “The House of Silence,” was written as part of a longer story in which several poets in a fictional interstellar empire gather together to debate the art of poetry. “The House of Silence” was placed in the mouth of a mad bard who silences the dispute with this display of his art. 

The House of Silence

The House of Silence

Slumbers by the pit

From which the waking world

Once had its start.

Its windows glitter

Like the distant stars,

But silence,

Always silence

Is its heart.


Its bards are those

Initiates who know

The lights around

The edge

Of the abyss.

Our poems are

Invocations of its dreams.

Our songs displays

Of its mad drunkenness.


In every word

We breathe

We bring the Void-

The utter zero

Of its depths unseen,

The sum of worlds

It swallowed and destroyed:

Dead myths and fables,

Fallen gods and dreams.


Behind these words,

These masks,

The black abyss.

The silent screaming

Of an unheard song:

My words are born

From Void

And nothingness,

Returning to the dark

When they are done.


Each weight of meaning

That you seek to wrap

Like beggar’s rags

Around the lords of dream

Will fall from them

And tumble in a heap.

This is the Void!

There’s nothing that it means.


Black holes where

Stars and planets go to die,

In trailing streams of

Ice and fading light

Leave bright and shattered

Wreckage through the sky-

And none escapes the grip

Of endless night.


We dive headfirst

Toward silence even now-

Our eyes wide open,

Staring straight ahead.

Pretending that it isn’t

What it seems...

Not what it seems,

But manifestly is.


You fear the Mysteries

Because you know.

They gape before you

As the cold wind screams.

The awful magic

Of the Void is yours,

And yet you settle

For these placid

Dreams-

 

Thin so-called facts

You hide behind

To shield

Your lack of courage

As an act of will.

Rejecting magic

As a childish song

While all along

Its wind is screaming still.


Each drop of water,

Every living cell,

Contains the whole,

The mystery entire.

The hope of heaven

And the fear of hell,

The monk’s cold hardship

And the lover’s fire.


To taste a single moment

Of this life,

A single drop of wine,

Should be enough.

To bow the knee in dread

Or laugh out loud,

To burn its cities

Or to fall in love.


In paradox

Between the words

The perfect word

Is found.

In darkness

Without motion

Without sound.


In contradiction’s

Twisting truth is

Coiled the cold and clear

Impossible perfection

Of your fear.


Explosive

Joyful

Radiant

This horror that we’ve found:

The Ars Poetica

Of the beyond.

 

So dive away

Hold nothing back

Guard nothing,

Don’t defend.

Surrender and advance!

This is the end.


I wrapped my head

In silent darkness

So that I could learn

To hear the wind

From which

We won’t return.


I closed my eyes

In dark and silence

So that I could find

The words I wanted

On the howling wind.


In paradox

Between the words

The perfect word

Is found.

In darkness

Without motion

Without sound.


I bow my head

In silent darkness

As the future burns.

And having sung,

To silence I’ll return.


Christopher Scott Thompson

Photo by Tam Hutchison.

is an anarchist, martial arts instructor, and devotee of Brighid and Macha.

Christopher Scott Thompson

Christopher Scott Thompson is an anarchist, martial arts instructor, devotee of Brighid and Macha, and a wandering exile roaming the earth. Profile photo by Tam Zech.

https://noctiviganti.wordpress.com/
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