To Be Alone Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

To Be Alone
Solitude brings peace but not for long, being alone brings
restiveness, a longing for a voice even if it speaks banal
utterances. Silence doesn’t make a man whole he needs
to hear voices, to make sure we are not alone in a world
full of noises that means nothing for the basic needs of
daily life. Simple things like “what’s on telly darling? ”
if we do not listen carefully we lose love behind words
of domestic murmour. If we lose the ability to listen out
for the ordinary we lose the big picture, our remoteness
becomes agonizing, like a constant hum of melancholy.