First Day

To-Day is my first day as a blogger(23/02/06)

I want to share a poem with my readers. This poem was introduced to me by My father when i was a college student.That was forty years ago. I t was written by Edgar Lee Masters. Even now it impresses me . Common, read it.

SILENCE

I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,

And the silence of the city when it pauses,

And the silence of the man and maid,

And the silence for which music alone finds the word,

And the silence of the woods before the winds of spring begin,

And the silence of the sick.

When their eyes roam the room

And I ask: For the depths

Of what use is language?

A beast of the field moans a few times,

When death takes its young.

And we are voiceless in the presence of realities-

We cannot speak.

A curious boy asks an old soldier

Sitting in front of the grocery store,

“How did you loose your leg?”

And the old soldier is struck with silence,

On his mind flies away

Because he cannot concentrate it on Gettysburg.

It comes back jocosely and he says” A bear bit off.”

And the boy wonders. While the old soldier

Dumbly, feebly lives over

The flashes of guns, the thunder of cannon,

The shrieks of the slain,

And himself lying on the ground

And the hospital surgeons, the knives

And the long days in bed.

But if he could describe it all

He would be an artist

But if he were an artist there would be deeper wounds

Which he could not describe.

There is the silence of a great hatred,

And the silence of a great love,

And the silence of deep peace of mind,

And the silence of an embittered friendship

There is the silence of a spiritual crisis.

Through which your soul exquisitely tortured,

Comes with visions not to be uttered

Into a realm of higher life.

And the silence of the gods who understand each other without speech,

There is the silence of defeat,
There is the silence of those unjustly punished
And the silence of the dying whose hand
Suddenly grips yours.
There is the silence between father and son,
When the father can not explain his life,
Even though he be misunderstood for it.
There is the silence that comes between husband and wife.
There is the silence of those who have failed;
And the vast silence that covers
Broken nations and vanquished leaders.
There is the silence of Lincoln,
Thinking of the poverty of his youth.
And the silence of Napoleon
After Waterloo.
And the silence of Jeanne d'Arc
Saying amid the flames, "Blessed Jesus"—
Revealing in two words all sorrow, all hope.
And there is the silence of age,
Too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it
In words intelligible to those who have not lived
The great range of life.
And there is the silence of the dead
If we who are in life cannot speak
Of profound experiences,
Why do you marvel that the dead
Do not tell you of death?
Their silence shall be interpreted
As we approach them.

When ever I read the poem I was deeply moved .You can read and read and mullover it
The lines that I like it most:
"Thre is the silence between father and son,
When the father can not explain his life,
Eventhough he be misundersyood for it.