Brian’sPoems

The Collected Writings of Brian J. Mueller

A single poem, met at the right moment, can change a life.

Search and read all 1,834 pieces by Brian J. Mueller — 1,675 poems, 38 prose pieces, and 121 haiku from 12 published volumes. Free to read and share.

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Din of Everyday Life

The old platitude is sadly true -
silence is indeed deafening.
Only it has become more demonstrably true,
as the unspoken grows ever louder
than the chatter of 24-hour news.

The pointless roar of a motorcycle engine,
like the beeps and bops of our digital devices,
are merely distracting whispers
in comparison to the unspoken quiet.

I know you’ve heard the silence.
Sooner or later it speaks to us all.
Some of us even huddle together
to share stories from within this stillness.

What could it be we aren’t saying?
What is it that we can’t share?
To whom belong those voices
we drown in the din of our everyday life?

Somewhere a merry prankster is laughing,
drunk on all the wine we have wasted.
She figured out a long time ago
what we desperately desire to hear
is that which we fear the most.

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