Empty Spaces Poem by gershon hepner

Leaving empty spaces is more brave
than making sure that everything is filled,
and only when we’re silent can we save
the truth, that’s like a lily we don’t gild.
The emptiness that silence leaves behind it
makes everything compared with it like noise,
for in the empty soundspace we can split
infinitives that have avoirdupois
more weighty than the fullness of a sound
that raises spirits it cannot replenish.
Leaving empty spaces on your ground
augments the chords that noises may diminish,
and only in the sounds of silence can we hear
the truth, which lives within an empty space,
the heart that’s waiting to be filled, and ear
attentive to the ground below our bass.
In emptiness we feel sometimes a glimmer
of what may be the truth, since it creates
awareness of the primal awe and timor
that pulls us down to earth like heavy weights.

Inspired by a poem by Kay Ryan, in her collection “Flamingo Walking:

LEAVING SPACES

It takes a courageous
person to leave spaces
empty. Certainly any
artist in the Middle Ages
felt this timor, and quickly
covered space over
with griffins, sea serpents,
herbs and brilliant carpets
of flowers –– things pleasant
or unpleasant, no matter.
Of course, they were cowards
and patronized by cowards
who liked their swards as
filled with birds as leaves.
All of them believed in
sudden edges and completely
barren patches in the mind,
and they didn’t want to
think about them all the time.

12/12/08