In place of silence

If I were to try to explain how it happened
it would have to do with high tension, high voltage
breaking the tight line between what is real
and what is imagined. It has to do with boundaries

between body and soul and spirit. It is about
aspiration, longing for love, longing to have her
the indefinite beauty who defines a craving heart
the woman within, the muse, playing dice with angels.

And there is always the pain, the slow pain of forgetting
hidden among the shadows of the haunting past.
Whatever happened belongs to the space between the page
and the written word. It is better unspoken, unheard

because it fails when it reaches the vibrations of air,
the twisted membranes of the pharynx, the moment
which is live between the mouth and the microphone
between the speaker and the eardrum, is best held

close, except that the silence destroys from within.

© Steve Walter
Poetry South East 2000, Frogmore Press
BBC Kent website