The deafening silence of tragedy
the sound of pain beyond human comprehension
Stunned into silence a soundless
pause perhaps if we remain completely silent
maybe we won’t be noticed and it won’t be real.
Shrill sounds reveal that it is scarily real after all.
Alison Jean Hankinson
This is for d’Verse quadrille.
In 2005 I was in London with a group of school students when there was the second bombing, my students who were young and had never experienced anything like that before just wanted to get on their coach and go home immediately which just wasn’t possible, we left the following morning and the bus was eerily silent and remained so until we got beyond Birmingham. Silence is deafening in tragic circumstances. My heart and love to all to all who were touched by the Manchester bombing.
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Very nice poem as a memorial to those tragedies.
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It always strikes me how tragedy inspires some of the most profound poetry. I find it a way for us who write poetry to deal with the plethora of emotions that overwhelm us. And you, having been so close to such an incident–I can’t begin to imagine what it does to you and all involved. We all think we are safe in our little worlds but even thousands of miles away it hits home.
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I think that’s the silence that hurts the most… especially a silent child…
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The world events are scary for sure, Alison. The tragedy is beyond the silence of those innocents. It’s the silence of the world allowing it to happen.
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The deafening silence of tragedy.. you had me at the first line… powerful!
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I was very moved by the tragic events….you have captured that silence of tragedy ~
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