Mattie Quesenberry Smith

The Silence That Answers Back

Arts & Literature

“During the darkest nights of his soul, this poet cannot rattle the cage for answers once his solace flees. Instead, he learns to let silence fill the darkness. As he awakens, he finds new joy, lit and stirred by hearing. Shifting from loss, rumination, and anxiety to noting life’s loveliest sounds, he writes, ‘Cascading water pours over / rocks vested in / moss, whispering to me / like a mother soothing her child.’ Likewise, this lovely book shows us a way to ‘sing an anthem / made of silence, craving most / the absence of self.’”