When is silence speaking?

When was the last time you were at a loss for words? Maybe it was after a compliment that you did not know how to respond to; maybe writer’s block where the words could not flow easily. Maybe an embarrassing situation made all the worse if it was in public. Maybe you needed to speak up at work, school, to an authority figure, and you were at a loss, tongue tied. Maybe it was after an egregious statement that sought to demean and put down someone else or a cohort of people.  Silence pervaded your spirit. You did not now what to say. And there are times when silence is golden. Words cannot express adequately your emotional feeling.  Contemplation.  Prayer. Shock. A vow of silence.

Then there are the times when words just tumble out; roll over each other; collide and burst into frantic signs of jubilation, play leapfrog. Excitement. This situation is an interesting time for any start to a new year. Figuring out how silence and words challenge, support, and co-exist with each other as mantra partners. 

In this mix of opposing or maybe, juxtaposing thoughts, we focus on Amrita De and Gabrielle Douglas; one, a resident of New York, the other, Louisiana. Two women.  Different in cultural, family, and regional backgrounds. Contemporary and most likely eclectic.  Brilliant and adept at handling the nuances of silence and words.  And in their gender, they compel us to ponder whether or not 2018 may be vigorously transformed into the year of the woman in diverse and purposeful ways. Doubt it?  Just watch the next twelve months.

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Amrita De (photo provided)

While an emerging academic writer by way of her comparative literature doctoral work, De aligns her spirit with creative non-fiction.  She shares, "I find this shift immensely liberating, because it has helped me to channelize my innermost thoughts, in a medium that does not have the imposition of academic rigour. Most importantly, I have found a way to celebrate, the beauty of words, in its pristine form, without the extraneous accoutrement of academic jargon.”

Here is an excerpt from Amrita’s essay, “In memoriam  of someone who had no name.”          

The blank page of this new document is as inviting as a warm cup of coffee at the end of a long, tiring day when necessary daily chores has been taken care of. This is on one such day when my circadian rhythm has been so thoroughly messed up that sleep remains my much sought after but elusive guest. What is there to be done then with the exception to write, and write I must. Write, write, write till sleep claws its way in dispelling my emotional excesses to commensurate a mythical sense of balance in my head. To write a Schizophrene narrative!

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Gabrielle Douglas (photo provided)

Gabrielle Douglas is a creative writing and religious studies student at Loyola University in New Orleans. A south Louisiana native, she has had previous work published in tenderness, yea. With two poems waiting to be published in aaduna’s winter 2017-18 issue, here are opening excerpts from her poem, “wednesday.”

when, reaching across the center console, i felt my fingertips with the side of your face

and found them instantly softened, instantly warm, instantly filled with abracadabra, alakazam

i felt love

i felt you

we were waiting in the terminal of the new orleans international airport, waiting for your sister

we'd sped along the access road with the windows open and the wind in our hair, in our faces, in the flowers

we'd smiled

we'd been together

and later that night, after we'd both dispersed to our separate pockets of the crescent city

i'd awoken with a start and found my great monster, the moon, staring down at me through the blinds over my window

and i wasn't scared

i thought of you

                        can you believe it?

                        i thought of you

***

As you move through the solitude of silence or the cacophony of words, trust your instincts and respond accordingly.

Watch for aaduna's winter issue LAUNCHING SOON!

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aaduna - an online adventure with words and images - a globally read, multi-cultural, and diverse online literary and visual arts journal established in 2010.  Visit us at www.aaduna.org where we put measurable actions to our words.

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