Oh, what mystery there is in silence! The mind rushes in to fill the void with imaginings. You are no longer the dear you I think I knew before; you become an amorphous, shifting proliferation of possibilities. The human mind is hard-wired to attach meanings to all phenomena. So the absence of communication doesn't stay simply that; I make it mean this about me and that about you, many thises and thats. I make it mean that someone is wrong, someone is to be blamed. I did something wrong, therefore you don't communicate. Or your non-communication is you doing something wrong. Or maybe neither: perhaps circumstances are to blame. Perhaps your computer is broken, or lost, or stolen. Perhaps you are busy, or tired, or sick, or dead. Something is to blame, something is wrong. It cannot just be: a thing in itself. Nature doesn't abhor a vacuum nearly as much as that part of nature called the human mind does.
the air turns cold
after the sound of rain
ceases
I came across this journal entry from some time ago – the prose piece – and thought it just needed a verse added to become a haibun.
Linking to The Tuesday Platform for Feb 6 2018 at "imaginary garden with real toads". I am shifting my (future) poetry to a new blog, which I did not anticipate when I posted this one. It seems kinda appropriate / ironic that the last one here is about unanswered messages, which might even be unread – so, by linking, I am making sure it is read!
Very wise words.....and i LOVE the haiku.
ReplyDeleteI like this reasoning for unanswered messages. The haiku is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHumanity is always too quick to put words into the actions of Nature's mouth.
ReplyDeleteLove it.. the haiku is brilliant..
ReplyDeleteIf Saul Bellow was right when he said writers are readers moved to emulation, then this missed note became the armada of poems in bottles to come. And all we know whittles so.
ReplyDeleteyou have taken silence and filled it with questionings and wonderings - the haiku brings the silence that comes after rain - a lovely find
ReplyDeleteOh gosh how I relate to this!💖 We do tend to jump to conclusions when that someone doesn't answer our messages. Love how you weave those thoughts into this poem. Beautifully rendered!💖
ReplyDeleteNice reasoning, Rosemary. "The mind rushes in to fill the void with ..." We could relate the mind here with the part of spell checkers that do 'auto correct and complete.'
ReplyDelete..
Ha ha, so we could!
DeleteThe human mind can so often lead us wrong... I have also wondered how you can draw a bear from a couple of stars... we do have this tendency to fill the void... sometimes we should just let silence be I think
ReplyDeleteThere is a term they use now for unanswered messages, ghosting. I really hate it when silence forms and you don't know why.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, yes. Could be....
DeleteOh! I really get this. Your teensy haiku is splendid.
ReplyDeletelove how the haiku morphs -- can be just about rains but then after reading the haibun, it becomes layered, speaking about friendship's communication (or the lack thereof) and it's effect. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteI love the way different levels of meaning seem to orbit around each other in the relationship between the haiku and prose... very beautiful and relatable.
ReplyDeleteOh, the interior life of the self...interesting take.
ReplyDelete