[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
Check out the most recent issue of The Voice, Young Writers Project’s monthly digital magazine. Click here.
“’Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt,” Abraham Lincoln is said to have once told a friend. That advice still rings true today – but when caught up in new or awkward social situations, the tendency to fill the void can be overwhelming. This week, Barnet poet Jordan Barbour gives thanks to a rare friend whose silent presence brings comfort rather than anxiety.
Dear Friend
By Jordan Barbour, 17
I used to hate silence,
the unending weight
spiraling into the abyss,
with no aim, no goal,
and nothing to be gained.
For years, I filled my life
with sound, music,
meaningless conversation,
all to fill the hole –
and yet I felt empty,
knew that my existence was silent.
I continued on with the same
uncaring voices, to give myself…
But like all false things, those voices
eventually slithered away in the night
and I feared I was destined
to live in the emptiness.
When I met you,
I thought it would be the same –
that I had to fill the empty air
for you to care.
But one day we fell into silence,
conversation a burden
to our tired minds,
and simply lounged together.
Yet I didn’t feel you
slipping away into the chasm.
I didn’t feel that I had to say
one breath-filled word.
For once, the silence was good,
because it said what we needed to say
more eloquently than we ever could.
And now, dear friend,
all I have to say
is that I fear the silence no more.
