The Poetry of Silence

I was recently in a reflective mood and thought about silence. In his magnum opus, David Foster Wallace indicated pauses in conversation by using an ellipse encapsulated in quotes. This signified silence from one of the speaking parties while the other was waiting for a response. In my reflective moment, I thought I’d invoke this technique in poetic form. Here are the results.

a conversation about nothing

" … "
" … "
" … "

" … "
" … "
" … "

a silent argument

                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "
                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "
                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "
                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "



                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "
                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "
                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "
                       " ... "
                                                                                                            " ... "

understanding

         " ... "
                                                                                                                          " ... "
                           " ... "                      
                                                                                                           " ... "
                                              " ... "
                                                                                                     
                                                                                          " ... "

“ ... ”
“ ... ”