From The Daily Create:
Sit for a few minutes in a quiet space. Write about what you hear.
(Based on exercises in Keri Smith’s “How to be an Explorer of the World”. find more creative ideas at http://kerismith.com.)
Who am I kidding, I haven’t sat in pure silence in a long time. I can selectively mute the world when I’m engrossed in other projects or other sounds, but I live with a constant whining ringing in my ears. I often fall asleep waiting for it to stop.
I’m not sure if my sound’s depth perception is accurate anymore – the crickets fade in and out of sounding like toads.
I want to fill the absence of activity; in an attempt to sit still and quiet I tell my limbs to rest. My twitches create disturbances in the air, but I can neither feel them nor hear them over the ringing.
A scent blows in from the window and I panic because I can’t see, my eyes trying to picture the smell. The shifting of my body creaks into the floor, the rubbing of my chin on my shoulder rustling over every pore of my skin, the panic heightens my senses and I can hear my eyes widen and blink, I can hear the waver of my subconscious holding of breath, and I can hear my heart adding to its beats per minute. The ringing sets in again and I hear the vapors escape my nostrils weaving out of its compressed passages.
The words inside of my head have taken over. They want to analyze, they want to identify and add to my growing consciousness of what it takes for me to be alive.
And then I’m suddenly aware I have a voice.
And I start humming the song in my heart.
